BREED! 

■Ill I 

FARM ANIMA 



iiiiiiiiiKniimuifiiimj 



ium 




F.B..MAR.SHALL 




Copyright )J^ 



COPYRIGHT DETOSrr. 



This book is dedicated to the memory 
of the late Professor John A. Craig 
in remembrance of 
extraordinary service 
to agricultural education 
in establishing the teaching 
of animal husbandry. 



Breeding 
Farm Animals 



By F. R. Marshall 

Professor of Animal Husbandry 
Ohio State University 




Chicago! 

The Breeder's Gazette 

1911 






COPYRIGHT, 1911. 
SANDERS PUBLISHING CO. 

All rig-hts reserved. 






gCI.A295330 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

INTRODUCTION. 

CHAP. I.— EARLIER STOCK BREEDING. 

The Arabian Horse — French Horse Breeding — The Thor- 
oug-hbred — British Stock — Robert Bakewell — Influ- 
ence of Bakewell's work — Dates of Foundings of the 
Breeds 15 — 21 

CHAP. II.— AMERICAN STOCK BREEDING. 

European Stock in America — The American Trotter — 
Draft Horses from Europe — Coach Horses — Cattle 
Importations — Advent of Breeds of Sheep — American 
Breeds of Swine — Hindrances to Stock Raising — 
Proportion of Registered Stock — Need of Good Stock 
— State Aid — Federal Aid — Breeders' Opportunities 22 — 31 

CHAP. III.— HEREDITY. 

Secrets in Breeding — Indefinite Expressions of Breeders — 
Results of Experience — Bakewell's Principles — 
Breeders' Desideratum — Hereditj' — Heredity has a 
Physical Basis 32—39 

CHAP. IV.— FACTS CONCERNING REPRODUCTION. 

Female Reproductive Organs — Male Reproductive Organs — 
Essentials of Conception — Barrenness — Sterility — 
Number of Services — Size of Litter — Influence of 
Sire and Dam 40—47 

CHAP, v.— THE GERM CELLS. 

Cell Growth — The Chromatin — The Chromosomes — Prep- 
aration of the Germ Cells — Significance of the Chro- 
mosomes — Fertilization 48 — 58 

CHAP. VL— THE HEREDITARY MATERIAL. 

Scientists and Breeders — Inheritance Through Chromo- 
somes — Possible Chromosome Combinations in Ovum 
— Possible Chromosome Combinations in Spermato- 
zoa — Equally Probable Results of Fertilization — • 
Why Related Animals Differ— Basis of Controlling 

Heredity 50—64 

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BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 



CHAP. VII.— ORIGIN OF THE HEREDITARY MATERIAL. 

The Problem — Necessity and Value of Theory — Darwin's 
Theory — An Opposite View — Pangenesis — Continuity 
of Germ Plasm — The Explanations Compared — Re- 
lation of Practice to the Theories 65— 



CHAP. VIII.— BREEDING AND SELECTION. 

Basis of Control of Heredity — Why Offspring Resembles 
Parents — Ancestry and Prepotency — How Atavism 
May Occur 73 — 78 

CHAP. IX.— INDIVIDUAL EXCELLENCE IN BREEDING 
ANIMALS. 

Foundation Stock — Types — Value of Type — Need of 
Full Study — Breeder must be a Judge — Prepotency — 
Character — Significance of Character — Age and Pre- 
potency — Fancy Points 79 — 92 

CHAP. X.— PEDIGREES OF BREEDING ANIMALS. 

Progeny the Best Test — Form of Pedigree — All Ancestors 
Must be Studied — Breeding Records of Parents — 
Similarity of Type in Parents — Value of Show 
Awards — Fair Estimate of Sire — Advanced Registers 
— Obscured Merit — Grandparents — Near and Remote 
Ancestors — Fashion and Family Names — Significance 
of Breeders' Names — Correctness of Pedigrees 93 — 110 

CHAP. XL— THE OFFSPRING DURING GESTATION. 

Relation of Foetus to Dam — Effect Upon Foetus of Mater- 
nal Impressions — Need of Care in Management — Nu- 
trition of Offspring — Feeding the Dam — Growth of 
Bovine Foetus — Influence of a Previous Impregna- 
tion 111—120 

CHAP. XII.— DEVELOPMENT OF YOUNG STOCK. 

What Constitutes Environment — Improved Stock for Im- 
proved Environment — Feeding Must Support Breed- 
ing — Feeding While Young — Good Care Aids Selec- 
tion — Transmission of Effects of Environment — 
Biologists on Transmitted Development — Acquired 
Development in Trotters — Claimed Transmission of 
Acquired Development — Inheritance Not Related to 
Sire's Age — How Development Aids Selection — 
Actual Role of Environment 121 — 136 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 7 

CHAP. XIII.— DETERMINATION OF SEX. 

Influence of Time of Breeding — Influence of Body Condi- 
tions — Alternating Ova — Influence of Stronger Par- 
ent — Effect of Nutrition — Experimental Evidence — 
Experiments with Butterflies — The Evidence from 
Bees — Sex Probably Determined at Conception — The 
Accessory Chromosome — Significance of the Acces- 
sory Chromosomes — Undesirability of Sex Control.. 137 — 148 

CHAP. XIV.— FOUNDATION AND MANAGEMENT OF A 
BREEDING BUSINESS. 

Breeding an Art — The Breeder's Personal Equipment — 
Judging Ability — Impartiality Essential — Value of 
Breed History — Salesmanship — Advertising — Exec- 
utive Ability — Wealthy Breeders — Location — Home 
Grown Feeds — Strain More Important Than Breed — 
Starting from Market Stock — Not How Many, But 
How Good — Cheap Foundation Stock — Merit in 
Both Parents Essential — The First Sire — The Sec- 
ond Sire — Phenomenal Sires — Culling the Females — 
Uniformity in Females — Value of Long Established 
Herds 149—166 

CHAP. XV.— INBREEDING AND LINE BREEDING. 

Inbreeding Defined — Line Breeding — Opposition to Inbreed- 
ing — Thomas Bates and Inbreeding — Barrenness in 
Early Duchesses — Swine Statistics — Laboratory Ex- 
periments — Benefits of Inbreeding — American Here- 
ford Breeding — The Gentry Berkshires — The Prin- 
ciple of Inbreeding — Inbreeding per se — Risk in Out 
Breeding — When to Inbreed 167—187 

CHAP. XVI.— MENDEL'S LAW. 

Breeding in the Future — Beginnings of New Characters — 
Mutation — Polydactylous Guinea Pigs — DeVries Ex- 
periments — Cause of Mutation — Cross Breeding for 
New Characters — Mendel — Mendel's Experiments — 
Mendel's Law — How Mendelian Proportions Occur — 
Purity of Gametes — Mendelism in Animals — Unit 
Characters — Application of Mendel's Law — Limita- 
tions of Mendelism — Non-Mendelian Characters — 
Need of Breeder's Records 188 — 208 

CHAP. XVII.— BREED RELATIONS. 

The Place of Breeds — Evolution of Types — Need for Nu- 
merous Breeds — Distribution of Breeds — Community 
Breeding — Value of Shows — Basis of Awards — Ad- 



8 - BREEDING FAR:\I ANIMALS 

vanced Registration — Registration in the Future — 
Cross Breeding- — Crossing Types — Pure Breeds for 
Crossing — Limits of Improvement — Effects of Inju- 
dicious Breeding — Breeding for Vigor and Prolifi- 
cacy 209 — 221 

CHAP. XVIII.— BREEDERS' ASSOCIATIONS. 

Origin of Registration — Advantage of Single Registers — 
Conduct of Herd Books — Relation of Government — 
Canadian Registration Affairs — Eligibility to Regis- 
tration — Other Functions of Breed Associations. .222 — 230 

CHAP. XIX.— HORSE BREEDING. 

Place of the Draft Horse — Cities Set Prices — Earlier Draff 
Horse Affairs — American Breeding — The Depression 
— The Revival — Advantages of Foreign Breeders — 
Stallion Raising — Influence of the Auto-Truck — 
Breed for top of Market — Draft Types — M'arket 
Discrimination — Breeding Carriage Horses — Good 
Breeding an Essential — Breeding Trotters 231 — 247 

CHAP. XX. — CATTLE BREEDING. 

Influence of the Range — Beef and Valuable Lands — . 
American Progress in Herefords — Evolution of Types 
— Early Maturity and Size — Advance of Dairying — 
Advantages of Dairying — Professional and Commer- 
cial Breeders — Superiority for Dairy Purposes- 
Breed Tests — Advances in Dairy Breeding — Form 
and Function — Extra Influence of Sire — Testing 
Breeding Cows ■ -IS — 265 

CHAP. XXL— SHEEP BREEDING. 

Environment for Sheep — Economy of Sheep Raising — 
English Shepherding — Pedigrees not to be Ignored — 
Breed Type — Fine Wools in America — Maintaining 
the Type 266—277 

CHAP. XXIL— SWINE BREEDING. 

Need of Improvement — Breed Building — Extremes Needed 
— Results of Extremes^Show Type — Opening for 
More Breeds — Mixing Types — Continuity in Farm 
Breeding — Conservative Breeders — Breeders' Re- 
ward 278 — 287 



PREFACE. 

Stock-farming Is growing more popular both in theory 
and in practice. A scientific study of crop production 
makes clear the necessity of feeding the crops on the 
farm and the market conditions have afforded encourage- 
ment to the breeders and feeders of good stock. 

In crop-growing and in stock-feeding, much practical 
aid has been furnished by the scientists, notably the chem- 
ists. The breeders naturally look to the biologists for 
assistance, but up to the present any directions they may 
have received have been quite indefinite and not always 
practical ones. 

Notwithstanding the contrary hopes of some earnest 
and sanguine investigators, it does not seem that the 
breeding of animals can ever be made an occupation of 
wholly certain results. Professional breeders of long 
experience control quite largely the inheritances of their 
animals. The most that the non-professional or the be- 
ginning breeder can hope to accomplish through study 
is to acquaint himself with the guideposts familiar to 
those discerning persons who have reached success along 
the same road. 

The main object of this book is to direct attention 
away from profitless speculations that have necessarily 
characterized some earlier books, and to stimulate interest 
in the more tangible, the physical basis of heredity. A 

(9) 



10 UKEEDING FARM ANIMALS 

scientific study of the physical aspects of heredity leads 
to conclusions that fully accord with the teachings of 
the work of our master breeders. It has been the aim to 
limit discussion to points upon which scientific opinion 
is quite well agreed, though this has not been altogether 
possible. Free consultation of the references cited will 
give a deeper acquaintance with scientific aspects of the 
question. 

I am particularly indebted to Professors F. L. Land- 
acre and H. W. Vaughan for the assistance they have 
given me. Since this manuscript was prepared "Phys- 
iology of Reproduction" has come from the pen of F. 
H. A. Marshall, D.D. This is a most valuable treatise 
and contains much to add definiteness to the subjects 
treated in Chapters IV and V. 

F. R. MARSHALL. 
Ohio State University. 



INTRODUCTION. 

It has been said that agriculture is the foundation of 
all commerce. The records of advances in agriculture 
parallel quite closely those of national advancement. The 
ability to adapt the gifts of nature to the needs of rnan 
is well exemplified in the changes that have been effected 
in the domestic animals that play so important a part in 
the sustenance of the nation. 

Domestic animals and their products occupy a very 
important place in the commerce of the United States. 
At the close of the first decade of the twentieth century 
the value of animal products sold from and consumed 
on farms was equal to one-third of $ioo for every mem- 
per of the population of the entire country. This has 
no regard for the large value of work horses used in 
both city and country. There are numerous reasons for 
believing that stock raising will hold a much more prom- 
inent place in the future than it has in the past in Ameri- 
can agriculture. 

A contrast of our conditions with those obtaining in 
older countries shows that a part of our trade is based 
upon the fact that we still have considerable areas of 
low-priced lands upon which we rear stock at a cost that 
permits other nations to buy from us. But with the 
ultimate occupation of all our lands which are arable, 
this inequality of conditions affecting production must 



12 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

disappear. It is impossible to fully foresee future con- 
ditions, but the opinion seems general and not unreason- 
able that in considerable part our methods must so change 
as to result in the production of a large proportion of 
dairy products. The prosperity of such thickly popu- 
lated countries as Holland and the Island of Jersey, in 
which dairy farming is the chief interest, adds much 
force to this idea, though it must be considered that in 
those countries a minimum of the labor is performed 
by hired help. The cornbelt enjoys peculiar natural ad- 
vantages favoring the growth of its chief crop and it 
seems likely that for some time to come this section will 
furnish an important part of the world's supply of meats 
and of lard. 

For every demand for animals for service or as 
sources of food and clothing there has been produced a 
special kind of animal. This has also extended to the 
production of means of recreation and display, as shown 
in our lighter classes of horses, much of whose service 
is not immediately connected with trade or ordinary ne- 
cessities of living. In addition to supplying expressed 
demands for consumption the work of breeding and 
adaptation has furnished breeds and families, each char- 
acterized by special propensities that peculiarly adapt 
them to conditions having to do with the economy of 
production in some particular section or under some par- 
ticular system. 

The group of breeds comprising each of our common 
classes of stock — horses, cattle, sheep and swine — have 
sprung from a small number of types of original pro- 
genitors rendered somewhat distinct by habits and char- 



INTRODUCTION 13 

acteristics which enabled them to survive the rigors and 
vicissitudes of natural conditions. When viewed as a 
whole the work of the separation and perfection of so 
many separate and distinct types from so few natural 
types appears as a task impossible to human agency even 
in an indefinite length of time. When we recall that 
the chief part of this accomplishment covers less than 
200 years the marvel grows and an understanding of 
the principles involved becomes extremely desirable. 
When we also consider the fact that a large and increas- 
ing majority of the agricultural population is chiefly 
engaged in the production of such animals and that much 
skill and application are required to maintain the present 
state of excellence of these numerous breeds, the interest 
attaching to the principles involved takes on a more 
practical character. Add to this the further consideration 
that new breeds are still being added and the older ones 
are steadily evolving into more specialized and artificial 
forms, and the estimate of the practical importance of 
the question is still further heightened. 



14 



BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 







CHAPTER I. 

EARLIER STOCK BREEDING. 

The first notable achievement in adapting; animals to 
human needs as related to our present-day industry was 
the development of the Arabian 
The Arabian horse. The occupation and manner 
Horse. of living common to the Arabian 

tribes rendered them dependent upon 
the fleetness and stamina of their horses. Shorn of all 
exaggeration and romance which literature has attached 
to these horses it is undeniable that for their time they 
were well calculated to be at once the wonder and de- 
spair of other peoples. Realizing the great advantage en- 
joyed in the superiority of their horse, the Arabs very 
cleverly and wisely surrounded his rearing with an at- 
mosphere of mystery and guarded against his dissemina- 
tion so as to long retain for themselves the blood which 
had taken them so long to purify from the coarseness 
and variableness of its ancestors. 

The peculiar location of France caused its early mon- 

archs to especially interest themselves in the horse stocks 

of their dominions. Because of the 

French probability of being on unfriendly 

Horse-Breeding. terms with adjoining countries from 

which the French soldiery would 

naturally be horsed it was endeavored to encourage and 

(15) 



16 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

facilitate the rearing" and maintenance of superior horses 
in order that they might be available for the armies in 
times of war. Though seriously interrupted at inter- 
vals this national assistance to French horse-raising has 
been continued and was never more efficient nor extended 
than at the present time. With the exception of some 
aid to the improvment of fine-wooled sheep, similar aid 
has not been extended to the other classes of stock. The 
blood of the Arabian w^as considerably used at an early 
date to refine the coarser native stocks, but a principal 
factor in production of existing types of horses has been 
the demands for special types of service and the use for 
breeding* of those horses found most suitable to the de- 
mands of the prevailing kinds of labor. In later years 
the Arabian horse has been used but little. 

England also drew from the stock of the Arabians 
in her work of perfecting the light horse for racing pur- 
poses, and the work was encouraged 
The by King James I, who imported 

Thoroughbred. horses from the Orient in the early 
part of the seventeenth century. 
The succeeding reign saw other and more numerous im- 
portations of eastern stock, but it was the performance 
of Eclipse, foaled in 1764 and a great-great-grandson 
of a horse imported in 1 706, which marked the supremacy 
of the British-bred horses on the race course. The prog- 
eny of other horses of the same period showed that, 
though indebted to the Arabian, the skillful methods of 
selection practiced by English breeders had produced a 
much superior animal for their purposes. 

Whether or not early improvers of farm stock profited 



EARLIER STOCK BREEDING 17 

by the work of the horse breeders we cannot tell, but 
it was in the latter part of the 
British eighteenth century that there was 

Stock, inaugurated a most notable im- 

provement of British farm stock. 
This era of stock improvement resulted in the origina- 
tion of over a score of separate and distinct useful breeds 
of horses, cattle, sheep and swine, all well known in 
America today. American agriculture has drawn mainly 
on Britain for its live stock. That this is not due to an 
unreasoned preference for institutions of the mother 
country is shown by the patronage of continental breed- 
ers of Percheron horses, Holstein-Friesian cattle and 
Rambouillet sheep. Inasmuch as we still import from 
that small island, the area of which is scarcely equal to 
that of an average state, considerable numbers of six 
breeds of cattle, four of horses, nine of sheep and three 
of swine, the foundation of its animal husbandry is of 
more than ordinary interest. Although our chief inter- 
est is centered in events that transpired subsequent to 
1760, it is not necessary to assume that animal husbandry 
was entirely chaos previous to that time.* British agri- 
culturists of that day appreciated the relation of stock 
feeding to crop yields. It was recognized that the ani- 
mals of some counties were quite distinct from those of 
other counties in their rate and manner of growth and 
fattening qualities. The necessity of using the best ani- 
mals as breeders was understood and regarded by some, 
though it cannot be said that there was anything like a 
general application of that principle. 

* For a full review of earliest breeding see Darwin, "Animals 
and Plants under Domestication," chapter 20. 



18 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

The development of British breeds of Hve stock dates 
from 1760. It was at about this time that Robert Bake- 
well* assumed the management of 
Robert the estate on which his father and 

Bakezvcll. grandfather had resided at Dish- 

ley in Leicestershire. 
Although his most notable success was achieved with 
the sheep known as Bakewell or Dishley Leicesters, his 
W'Ork in the breeding of Longhorn cattle has been of 
inestimable value to all branches of the breeding in- 
dustry. The practices he relied upon in his breeding 
of Longhorn cattle are still the mainstay of breeders 
throughout the w^orld. 

The accomplishments of Bakewell served his entire 
country. His surplus stock became distributed through 
the adjoining counties, but of more 
InRiience of Bake- importance than this was the force 
ziell's Work. of his example and the spread of in- 

formation regarding the marked 
improvement he had effected and his means of attaining 
his ends. With the need for stock raising becoming more 
and more apparent and the more discriminating demands 
of consumers of meats, the example of Bakewell lent an 
impetus to British stock interests which resulted in that 
country's reaching the foremost position wdiich she still 
occupies. 

The earliest Short-horn breeders, the Colling brothers, 
were students of Bakewell's and aroused world-wide at- 
tention by the prices received at their sale in 18 10. 

*The life and work of Bakewell is well described in an article 
in the 1894 Report of the "Journal of the Royal Agricultural So- 
ciety." 



EARLIER STOCK BREEDING 19 

On the western side of England the cattle raisers of 
Herefordshire had produced a class of cattle adapted to 
their climate and system of raising, but the most ef- 
fectual improvement was effected by men who were con- 
temporaries of Bakewell or lived after his time. 

In 1822 a start was made in recording the pedigrees 
of Short-horn cattle and a similar work for the Here- 
fords was commenced in 1846. It 
Dates of Founding was not until 1862 that Scotch 
of the Breeds. breeders of Angus and Galloway 
cattle provided registration for their 
cattle though they had attained more than local eminence 
prior to that date. The Red Polled cattle of Norfolk and 
Suffolk counties were first recorded in 1874 and the De- 
vons were recorded in 1851. 

The improvement of the sheep stock seems to have 
followed more closely after the work of Bakewell than 
did that of cattle. It was upon his Leicester sheep that 
the fame of this great breeder of Dishley chiefly rested 
and it is not surprising that the shepherds should have 
been the first to emulate his example of improvement. Al- 
though we have a seeming profusion of breeds of British 
sheep, each was the result of the endeavors of breeders of 
a particular county to perfect a breed that would be the 
most economical producer under their conditions of cli- 
mate and soil and their systems of cropping and feeding. 
Though there was some use of older breeds in some cases, 
still the distinguishing characteristics of size and color of 
face are mainly traceable to similar appearances that 
happened to be present in the original native stock. Al- 
though breeders of Leicesters were working in co-opera- 



20 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

tion prior to the death of Bakewell, the system of reg- 
istering pedigrees of sheep was not adopted until many 
years after most of the breeds had been developed and 
had earned a general popularity in their respective sec- 
tions. 

At an early date Gloucester and parts of adjoining 
shires has become known for the distinctive character- 
istics of the sheep native to that section. During the 
close of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nine- 
teenth century this breed, the Cotswold, received liberal 
infusion of the blood of the more refined and easy feed- 
ing Leicester. Considerable numbers of descendants of 
Bakewell's flock also found their way into neighboring 
shires to modify some of the weaker features of the 
stock that had been developed there. 

By the close of the first quarter of the nineteenth cen- 
tury the farmers of the chalky hill lands of the shire 
of Sussex had, without resort to other blood, brought 
their sheep to a high order of utility. John Ellman 
and Jonas Webb did extraordinary service in the per- 
fection of this breed, the Southdown, and though we can- 
not say what their familiarity with Bakewell's work was, 
the product of their efforts has been distributed even more 
widely than the stock reared at Dishley. 

In succeeding years the Southdown sheep made a 
strong impression on those of Hampshire and still later 
the stock of Hampshire was drawn upon to mate with 
Cotswolds for the formation of a type with the most 
useful combination of characteristics for the agriculture 
of Oxfordshire, and the sheep bearing this latter name 
were admitted to separate classification at the 1862 show 



EARLIER STOCK BREEDING 21 

of the Royal Agricultural Society. Nine years previous 
the same recognition had been accorded the descendants 
of the native stock of Shropshire and Stafford, though 
such descendants owed much to the blood of both Lei- 
cester and Southdown. 

The practical appreciation of the value of carefully 
bred stock that prompted the formation of so many breeds 
has never flagged. The limited size of the country and 
the large population, in spite of importation of food ma- 
terials, have ensured remunerative prices for animals and 
their products and the general practice of selling animals 
rather than crops has sustained the yields from the soil. 
Practically all animals in every part of the island show a 
preponderance of ancestry of some of the breeds, and 
British agriculture is based no less upon the superiority 
of the farm animals than upon the spirit that would 
retain or use only the best that could be procured or 
produced. 



CHAPTER II. 

AMERICAN STOCK BREEDING. 

In America the development of our animal husbandry 
has afforded a marked contrast to the course of events 
in other lands. Colonists from vari- 
Eiiropcan Stocks ous European countries brought 
in America. with them such stock as was most 

common to the section from wdiich 
they emigrated. This gave us horses of Spanish and 
French blood, cattle and sw^ine of Holland, Germany and 
contiguous territory. Also there came from Spain the 
progenitors of much of our stock of fine-wooled sheep. 
Some of the prominence of British breeds of stock must 
be attributed to the large number of British colonists, but 
for the chief part their strength of numbers and popular- 
ity has been earned on the basis of utility and adaptability 
to the rec[uirements of the various agricultural parts of 
the country. 

As early as 1750, Virginia gentlemen brought from 
England running horses for racing and breeding. There 
being no place to which they could 
The American go for pronounced speed at the trot. 
Trotter. the American breeders early began 

the study and sifting of their horses 
of mixed blood with a view of perpetuating and intensify- 
ing the sources of excellence in trotting speed. Though 

(22) 



AMERICAN STOCK BREEDING 23 

the Thoroughbred was a prominent factor at the Inception 
of the work and for some time afterward, the accompHsh- 
ments are entirely accredited to American skill and enter- 
prise. 

It was not until the middle of the nineteenth century 
that the Percheron horse of France made its entrance into 
America. The history of Shires 
Draft Horses dates from about the same time, 
from Europe. while the Clydesdales invaded the 
field somewhat later. Our acquain- 
tance with the Belgian is comparatively recent. 

In the eighties the present type of the English Hack- 
ney obtained a foothold in America and was followed 
some years later by the French 
Coach and German Coach breeds. Numer- 

Horses. ous horses of carriage type and 

characteristics have occurred among 
the trotting stock and the United States Government now 
maintains a stud for the purpose of so combining the 
blood of such horses as to perpetuate their carriage quali- 
fications. The Government also supports an attempt to 
preserve the type of horses descended from the famous 
Morgan horse of Vermont. 

In cattle we had numerous valuable shipments of 

Short-horns prior to 1820. and influential activities in 

importing Short-horns into Ohio 

Cattle began in 1833. The seventies saw 

Tiiiportations. the attention of British breeders 

centered upon America and some 

considerable exportations of Short-horn blood were made 

to England from America. Importations from abroad, 



24 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

though varying' in extent with conditions, have been con- 
tinuous and are still quite common. From 1875 ^^ 1885 
saw the rapid and hard-earned rise and spread of the 
Herefords and Angus, with the Galloway also making fast 
friends in sections to which its peculiar virtues com- 
mended it. In Herefords we have progressed to the point 
where we no longer feel the need of recourse to the for- 
eign herds for aid in improvement, though importations 
of the other breeds mentioned are still common. 

Our dairy breeds we have also brought from abroad 
and it is to the credit of America that her citizens have 
not been loath to profit by the results of the laborious 
efforts towards stock improvement in other lands. The 
breeds imported represent such combinations of characters 
of adaptability and special usefulness as to allow each 
part of the country and each class of production to have 
a breed at least fairly well suited to the peculiarities of 
the locality or demand. 

It cannot be said that the breeds have been distributed, 
or are even now found, in such surroundings as their 
founders aimed to serve, but their career is yet so short 
that natural or reasonable distribution cannot now be ex- 
pected. Selection and differences in ideals have produced 
t^^pes within breeds with many of the special features 
common to stock bearing another breed name. We have 
also established polled varieties of all but one of our im- 
ported horned breeds. 

Spanish fine-wooled sheep were brought to America 
before the close of the eighteenth century and from their 
descendants we have produced an almost confusing num- 
ber of so-called breeds or strains. These classes of Mer- 



AMERICAN STOCK BREEDING 25 

inos exhibit as hig-li efficiency in the art of breeding as 

is evidenced in the productions of 

Advent of any other part of the world. Since 

Breeds of Sheep. 1840 considerable numbers of the 

Rambouillet sheep of France have 

been brought in. 

The English Leicester was known in America before 
the Revolutionary War, and several lots of the two other 
long-w^ooled breeds arrived subsequent to 1830. By the 
latter date the Southdown had also earned considerable 
popularity and the period between i860 and 1890 saw the 
establishment and wide distribution of the other down 
breeds, all of English origin. 

Europe furnished America with no breeds of swine 
bred to the purpose of turning corn into lard, and we 

have, therefore, three leading Amer- 

Anierican Breeds ican breeds distinguished only by 

of Szvine. such incidental characters as color 

and by differences in utility, due 
to variations in length of standing and the standards of 
the breeders. These breeds have been descended from 
imported European stocks which could hardly be 
said to have been highly improved except in the 
instance of the Berkshire. In 1835 the Berkshire 
was established in the section that was to be the 
birthplace of the Poland-China. This English breed 
is still imported in small numbers, but the Berk- 
shire of the cornbelt is more useful to that section than is 
the stocks as bred in England. For what we need of York- 
shires and Tamworths we draw upon England still. It 
was in 1872 that the National Swine Breeders' Conven- 



26 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

tion adopted the name Poland-China for the hogs that 
originated in southwestern Ohio and were meeting with 
much favor. It was several years later that the Chester 
White was deemed a breed and the Duroc- Jersey received 
its name from its assembled breeders in 1883. Other 
breeds of American origin have been produced and re- 
tained in restricted areas. 

When it is considered that most breeds of live stock 
have had their residence in America for less than half a 
century it is no cause for surprise to learn that a large 
proportion of farm animals bear no evidence of relation- 
ship to any breed. Only in the older sections has agri- 
culture taken on anything like a permanent aspect. In 
such localities depleted soils have emphasized the need 
of live stock. In a smaller country the dependence of 
such areas on stock farming would long ago have forced 
out of existence all but such animals as could show them- 
selves possessed of practical superiorities over all less 
carefully bred stock. The influx of cheaply raised west- 
ern stock to supply the population 
Hindrances to of the East has seriously disturbed 
Stock Raising. the natural progress of agricultural 
affairs in the more densely peopled 
states. The western landowners and operators have had 
an exclusive interest in stock raising and have been in 
direct touch with the industry, both in the country and at 
market centers. It is therefore found that in our newer 
states in which crop-raising has not become general we 
have a higher average of domestic animals than in places 
where conditions demanded the best grades of stock but 
in which that stock could not be produced in competition 



AMERICAN STOCK BREEDING 27 

with the operators of the new, cheap lands of western 
states. 

The advance of each of the breeds toward a higher 
place in the estimation of the agricultural public has been 
a steady one but much slower than it should have been. 
American breeders of note have not been wanting nor 
has there been an absence of raisers of superior market 
stock to set an example for their neighbors struggling 
with inferior work and feeding stock and declining crop 
yields. The non-agricultural character of a large pro- 
portion of the settlers of our lands and their refusal to 
recognize the need of conserving the fertility of the virgin 
soils has checked the general adoption of a studied system 
of stock-farming such as obtains in older, prosperous 
countries. The existence of other hindering factors such 
as unsteady values and transportation difficulties must also 
be recognized. 

The native animal exists as a product of proved ex- 
cellence for withstanding natural conditions. When there 
is a demand for animals that can utilize and respond to 
artificial care and feeding and give returns proportionate 
thereto, the animals produced by artificial selection are 
appreciated. The improved stock enlarges its domains 
and adds to the ranks of its devotees not so much through 
the force of the arguments of its supporters as through 
the victories won wherever a really good animal is fairly 
pitted against a native with no inherent possibilities of 
making response to studied care and feeding. 

With the great early appreciation of the imported 
breeds there was a demand larger than could be fully 
supplied with such creditable representatives as would be 



28 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

qualified to worst the native. Possession of certificates of 
registry was too often looked upon as a guarantee of the 
desired excellence. Many descendants of registered par- 
ents had in themselves none of the practical qualifications 
that the times demanded. The too frequent sales of such 
stock and the extent to which it was retained for breeding 
hindered the proper regard of the more meritorious ani- 
mals and thus, in a measure, those who claimed to be 
friends of advancement really exerted an influence in the 
other way. To a considerable extent present-day progress 
is retarded by the indiscriminate propagation of registered 
animals, not so much through the injury resulting from 
their dissemination as by misrepresentation to persons not 
familiar with the breeds and with what really improved 
stock actually stands for and can accomplish. 

/ An officer of the Bureau of Animal Industry* esti- 
mates that of all horses in the United States 1.02 per cent 
are registered. For dairy cattle the 
Proportion of percentage is given as 1.07, beef 

Registered Stock, cattle 1.05, sheep 0.46 and swine 
0.45. It would be of great interest 
if we could know what proportion of the farm animals 
of the British Islands are entered in books of record, be* 
cause there the conquest of the scrub was assured long 
ago and there is a minimum of animals that are the re- 
sult of no plan and exhibit no peculiar usefulness. 

Percentages of registration, however, are a crude 
guide to the status of animal husbandry. Registration 
figures show the number of animals that have been pro- 
duced for the express purpose of use as parents of other 

♦Bureau of Animal Industry Report, 1905. 



AMERICAN STOCK BREEDING 29 

animals which in turn may be designed either for pro- 
duction of still other breeds or for service or slaughter. 
Many animals of pronounced merit and of carefully se- 
lected lineage are never registered and may be superior to 
some whose lineage is a matter of official record. This 
applies especially to swine, for although the percentage 
mentioned is a small one it is well known that but few 
animals reaching our markets fail to show strong infu- 
sions of the blood of the improved types. 

Such statistics as are available in a few states shov/ 
that the majority of the stallions that are siring colts are 
not of recorded stock. Though this class may include 
some useful sires it is well known that many, even of 
those with pedigrees, are not fitted for the service they 
are allowed to perform. 

Actual tests of numerous representative herds of dairy 
cows in two states show that a large proportion of cows 
kept are incapable of returning any profit to their owners. 
One-fourth of the cows kept in one case yield less than 
one-half the butter fat secured from the better one-fourth 
of the herd.* It is only necessary to scan the rank and 
file of offerings of any classes of stock at our market 
centers to realize that while every section may have some 
representatives of breeds resulting 
Need of from improvement, still much of 

Good Stock. the stock reared is nearer to the type 

of the native than to that which the 

market most highly appreciates. Even though the future 

should permit the cheap-selling grades to be produced at 

a profit, it is assured that there will be a more general ap- 

* Illinois Experiment Station, Circular 106. Indiana Experiment 
Station. Bulletin 107. 



30 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

preciation of the higher classes of stock, not only be- 
cause of their higher market value, but also on the basis 
of their more ready response to skillful care and feed- 
ing. 

To encourage horsemen to raise such animals as are 
most profitable, several states have e^iacted legislation to 
prohibit stallions of inferior charac- 
State ter standing for public service. It is 

Aid. not the owner of the stallion who is 

at fault in standing an unsound or 
low-bred horse so much as it is the fault of the mare owner 
who elects that the horse he rears shall inherit such in- 
feriority. The stigma placed upon the low-class horse 
which the state refuses to license is the most effective 
accomplishment of such laws. 

The United States Government allows entrance from 
other countries, free of duty, of all registered animals in- 
tended for breeding purposes. The Government also does 
special service in some sections to 
Federal encourage the keeping of better 

Aid. classes of farm animals and, in ad- 

dition to its endeavors to develop 
types of horses, it is working with the western sheep in- 
terests to produce a type of sheep with the qualifications 
most needed on the range. 

It sometimes appears that men have already accom- 
plished most of what can be done in breeding farm ani- 
mals. Considering the very wide adherence of the major- 
ity of stock farmers to unimproved types and the fact 
that the future will make it imperative that there be reared 
only such animals as are peculiarly fitted for special pur- 



AMERICAN STOCK BREEDING 31 

poses, it becomes apparent that the distribution of the 
products of the breeders' art has only begun. If every 
unregistered and inferior sire, retaining the grades that 
are known to be good breeders, could be eliminated from 
any one of our states, the supply of registered and su- 
perior ones would be entirely inadequate to meet the de- 
mands. 

The foundation of American animal husbandry has 

been well laid and the work of its perfection is making 

sure and steady progress, but the ex- 

Breeders' tent of past accomplishments is but 

Opportiinitles. a fraction of what remains to be 
done. The average of excellence 
of stock reared for breeding purposes must be greatly 
raised. This is to be done largely by the elimination of 
the undesirable individuals, but the class of showyard 
merit is certain to be modified to meet the changes needed 
by the market and by the varying vicissitudes of rearing 
under different conditions. 

As conditions exist today very considerable numbers 
of American-bred animals are being shipped to other 
countries and it is impossible to make any reasonable 
forecast of the extent of such trade in the future. There 
is need of the services of every one who has the quali- 
fications that enable a man to improve his animals, and 
every one with the capacity to serve in any branch of the 
industry is assured of remuneration fully commensurate 
with what he has to offer. 



CHAPTER III. 

HEREDITY. 

Unusually successful breeders are looked upon by per- 
sons not conversant with higher aspects of animal breed- 
ing as being possessed of some care- 
Secrets fully guarded secrets or rules of 

in Breeding. mating that give them unusual ad- 

vantages in their work. Anyone not 
familiar w-ith the art of breeding cannot appreciate the 
necessity and efficacy of extended and studious observa- 
tion combined with careful experience. Obviously there 
is nothing about an animal's individuality or breeding 
powers that may not be learned as readily by one person 
as by another, but the difference lies in the signincance 
of the external indications to variously ecjuipped men, and 
in their courage and willingness to act upon what they 
have learned to read in the animals scrutinized. Again it 
is apparent that by far the chief feature of breeding is in 
the selection of animals for mating. 

To formulate any rules or guides from the work and 
instruction of even the most successful breeders is a very 
confusing task. Many such men 
Indeii7iite Exprcs- have seriously discussed the teach- 
sions of Breeders, ings of their experience in regard to 
the relative influence upon the prog- 
eny of the male and female parents. In some instances 

(32) 



HEREDITY 33 

we are recommended to select a certain type or class of 
females to mate with a specified type of male; in others 
emphasis is laid on ancestors of one sex almost to 
the exclusion of the other sex. Practically all emphasize 
the necessity of a good line of ancestry, though just what 
constitutes such and what weight it should be given in 
comparison with individual make-up is impossible of clear 
expression. 

A long, careful, practical apprenticeship to the opera- 
tions of our more capable breeders will bring a person of 
ordinary natural qualities for the work into an intimacy 
with the aims and guiding principles of the profession 
that will remove the seeming vagueness of the precepts 
of even the best followers of the art. At the same time 
such a person must still be conscious of a superficiality of 
his knowledge of the laws and forces with which he 
deals. It has been said that while the practices of the 
breeders show much of uniformity in their estimation and 
application of the principles involved, yet their precepts 
lack entirely the clearness and similarity of their ex- 
amples. At first sight this is somewhat discouraging to 
the student or beginner, and it is the aim of these pages 
to first look into some facts and conditions that obtain in 
all breeding and which may constitute a basis for later 
discussion of principles that govern in all breeding opera- 
tions. 

Both precept and example of all good breeders show a 
uniformity and fundamental reliance upon the principle 
commonly expressed in the phrase, "Like begets like." 
Robert Bakewell could say no more to the eager solici- 
tors of his secret than "Breed the best to the best." A 



34 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

hundred years later the sage of Sittyton with as much 

frankness and definiteness as was 

Result of possible to put into words assured 

Experience. those who clamored to know the 

reason of the unusual fleshing of his 

Short-horns that "thick-fleshed cattle breed thick-fleshed 

cattle.'-' 

The most helpful discussion of Bakewell's ideas that 
is now available is printed by Youatt* and is herewith 
quoted : 

"Having remarked that domestic animals in general 
produced others possessing qualities similar to their own, 
he conceived the idea that he had only to select the most 
valuable breeds, such as promised to return the greatest 
emolument to the breeder, and that he should then be 
able, by careful attention to progressive improvement, to 
produce a breed whence he could derive a maximum of 
advantage. 

"Under the influence of this excellent notion, he made 
excursions into different parts of England, in order to 
inspect the different breeds, and to select those that were 
best adapted to his purpose, and the most valuable of their 
kind, and his residence and his early habits disposed him 
to give the preference to the Long-horn cattle. 

"We have no account of the precise principles which 
guided him, nor of the motives that influenced him in the 
various selections which he made ; but Mr. Marshall, who 
says that he Svas repeatedly favored with opportunities 
of making observations on Mr. Bakewell's practice, and 
wnth liberal communications from him on all rural sub- 
jects,' gives us some clue. He tells us, however, that 'it 
is not his intention to deal out Mr. Bakewell's private 
opinions, or even to attempt a recital of his particular 

*Youatt, "Stock Raisers' Manual," pp. 190-2. 



HEREDITY 35 

practice.' Mr. Marshall was doubtless influenced by an 
honorable motive in withholding so much that would 
have been highly valuable; and we can only regret that 
he was so situated as to have this motive pressing on his 
mind. 

''He speaks of the general principles of breeding, and 
when he does this in connection with the name of Bake- 
well, we shall not be very wrong in concluding that these 
were the principles by which that great agriculturist was 
influenced. 

" 'The most general principle,' he says (we are re- 
ferring to his 'Economy of the Midland Counties,' vol. I, 
p. 297), 'is beauty of form. It is observable, however, 
that this principle was more closely 
BakewelVs attended to at the outset of improve- 

Principles. ment (under an idea in some degree 

falsely grounded, that the beauty of 
form and utility are inseparable) than at present, when 
men who have long been conversant in practice make a 
distinction between a 'useful sort' and a sort which is 
merely 'handsome.' 

"The next principle attended to is a proportion of 
parts, or what may be called utility of form in distinction 
from beauty of form; thus the parts which are deemed 
offal, or which bear an inferior price at market, should 
be small in proportion to the better parts. 

"A third principle of improvement is the texture of 
the muscular parts, or what is termed flesh, a quality of 
live stock which, familiar as it may long have been to 
the butcher and the consumer, had not been sufficiently 
attended to by breeders, whatever it might have been to 
graziers. This principle involved the fact that the grain 
of m.eat depended wholly on the breed, and not, as has 
been before considered, on the size of the animal. But 
the principle which engrossed the greatest share of atten- 
tion, and which above all others is entitled to the graziers' 
attention, is fattening quality, or a natural propensity to 



36 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

acquire a state of fatness at an early age, and when in full 
keep, in a short space of time, a quality which is clearly 
found to be hereditary. 

"Therefore, in Bakewell's opinion, everything depend- 
ed on breed, and the beauty and utility of the form, the 
quality of the flesh and the propensity to fatten were, in 
the offspring, the natural consequence of similar qualities 
in the parents. His whole attention was centered on these 
four points ; and he never forgot that they were compatible 
with each other, and might be occasionally found in the 
same individual. 

''Improvement had hitherto been attempted to be pro- 
duced by selecting females from the native stock of the 
country, and crossing them with males of an alien breed. 
Mr. Bakewell's good sense led him to imagine that the 
object might be better accomplished by uniting the su- 
perior branches of the same breed, than by any mixture of 
foreign ones. 

"On this new and judicious principle he started. He 
purchased two Long-horn heifers from Mr. Webster, and 
he procured a promising Long-horn bull from Mr. West- 
moreland. To these and their progeny he confined him- 
self, coupling them as he thought he could best increase 
or establish some excellent point, or speedily and effectu- 
ally remove a faulty one. 

"Many years did not pass before his stock was un- 
rivalled for the roundness of its form, the smallness of 
its bone and its aptitude to acquire external fat; while 
they were small consumers of food in proportion to their 
size; but at the same time, their qualities as milkers were 
very considerably lessened." 

Youatt refers to one of Bakewell's bulls to which a 
few cows were brought at 5 guineas each. He also quotes 
Marshall regarding Bakewell in the words : 

"He likewise gives a curious account of Mr. Bake- 
well's hall. The separate joints and points of each of 



HEREDITY Z7 

the more celebrated of his cattle were preserved in pickle, 
or hung up side by side, showing the thickness of the 
flesh and external fat on each, and the smallness of the 
offal. There were also skeletons of the different breeds, 
that they might be compared with each other, and the 
comparative difference marked.' " 

The following is also taken from Youatt: 

'The practice of letting bulls originated in this dis- 
trict, and chiefly with Mr. Bakewell, and was generally 
adopted. The bulls were sent out in April, or the be- 
ginning of May, and were returned in August. The 
prices varied from lo to 50 or 60 pounds ; but in one case, 
* * * a bull was let at 80 guineas a season. Further 
evidence of the estimation in which the Bakewell stock 
was held is shown in his letting three rams in 1787 for 
1,200 guineas." 

It is commonly written that Bakewell was very reti- 
cent by nature and guarded very closely the ''secrets of 
his operations." It seems more just to consider that to 
the inquirers of his time the process of selection seemed 
inadequate, and they found it easier to suppose that there 
was some carefully guarded factor the possession of 
which would make them equally successful. 

In dealing with the relation of offspring and parents 

we are in touch with the force commonly spoken of as 

heredity. Manifestly, the desidera- 

Brccder's tum of the breeding profession is 

Desideratum. the highest possible measure of con- 
trol over the force of heredity. The 
past decade has been marked by unusual progress toward 
a more comprehensive understanding of the various as- 
pects of heredity. Discoveries have opened new avenues 



38 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

of investigation; previously puzzling phenomena have 
been rendered possible of explanation, and there exists a 
somewhat confident air that in the not remote future the 
breeding of animals will be placed on a plane of greater 
definiteness and less uncertainty than it now occupies. To 
study heredity and its newer and scientific aspects as ap- 
plied to the former and present conceptions of breeding 
is the object of the succeeding chapters. 

The term heredity is most commonly defined as the 

tendency of the offspring to resemble the parent form. 

The same thought has been expressed in 'Tike begets 

like." We are reminded on every 

__ _ hand In both plant and animal life 

11 cvcdity 

that like begets like in a general way 

so far as species or variety is con- 
cerned, and in the main also individuality of offspring is 
close to that of parent. In an exact sense, however, no 
animal is a counterpart of either parent. Total merit or 
separate points as often vary away from as toward what 
we desire. The making of our breeds has consisted no 
less in the elimination of the undesirable than in the per- 
petuation and combination of the better features of 
such animals as have been regarded as approaching more 
nearly to the ideal of usefulness and value for the pur- 
pose for which bred. Manifestly heredity and its study 
is as much concerned with a consideration of the minor 
departures from resemblance of offspring to parental 
type as with the likenesses. 

The idea of heredity finds expression in our common 
words ''heritage" and "inheritance," as implying the 
transfer of title or possession from one generation to an- 



HEREDITY 39 

Other. The proper study of heredity In animals, how- 
ever, must not fail to recognize that the young animal's 
heritage is complete at its birth; no subsequent depend- 
ence or connection with either parent for nourishment 
or protection can be considered as in any sense a heredi- 
tary relation; in fact, it will later be shown that heredi- 
tary impress was fully conveyed at a much earlier period, 
namely, at conception. 

The confusion resulting from the attempt to apply the 
truth of *'Like begets like" in exact or minute sense arises 
from the necessity of considering 
Heredity Has a every animal in relation to two par- 
Physical Basis. ents. The physiology of the repro- 
ductive processes having to do with 
the making of a new animal are well understood and 
sufficiently easy of explanation to repay careful study by 
one who would familiarize himself with the fundamentals 
of the breeder's work. The relation of each of the parents 
to their progeny and the real ultimate origin is made clear 
by an understanding of the arrangement and functions of 
the reproductive organs, more particularly in the female. 



CHAPTER IV. 
FACTS CONCERNING REPRODUCTION. 

The formation of the new animal begins with the 
union of the material from the male parent with a contri- 
bution from the female. Under normal conditions this 
union takes place within the body of the female shortly 
after copulation. A general knowledge of the location 
and construction of the female organs is necessary to a 
useful understanding of the conditions and processes that 
have to do with the origin of new individuals. The vulva 
is the external opening of the female reproductive organs. 
The vagina is the passage lying immediately inside the 
vulva and in an ordinary mare is 
Female Reprodnc- from 8 to 12 inches in length. Three 

five Organs. or 4 inches from the exterior open- 
ing of the vulva is the opening from 
the bladder. The os (os uteri) or neck of the womb pro- 
jects into the forward end of the vagina. Its length is 
about 2}^ to 3 inches and owing to the nature of its walls 
is ordinarily practically closed except at times of breed- 
ing or parturition. The womb or uterus is the part that 
contains the developing embryo. Its rear end opens into 
the vagina and its forward part is below and to the rear 
of the kidneys. In unbred mares the main body of the 
uterus has a length of from 5 to 8 inches. 

The ovaries produce the eggs or the female repro- 

(40) 



FACTS CONCERNING REPRODUCTION 



41 



• O Q 

n H 
5.2 o 



9S I 



i-:.sQ P 
aTp 

<-•■ 2 C3 
CO o _^ 

o • 

o 

II3 

S-o o 




35 



42 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

ductive bodies, and are two in number, one being 
situated on the right side and one on the left. The 
ovary of a young mare is reniform in shape, having its 
greatest dimension of 3^4 to 4 inches and weighing about 
4 ounces. The ovary of the cow is much smaller. It is 
the function of the ovaries to produce the eggs or ova 
(singular, ovum) from which the new animal develops 
after a union with another cell from the male parent. The 
time at which the ovum is ready to meet this body from 
the male is marked by evidence of being *'in heat." The 
Fallopian tubes connect the ovaries with the womb and 
through them the ova are conveyed to the latter. 

In the male the testicles are analagous to the ovaries 
of the female. The structure of the parts provided for the 
introduction of the product of the 
Male Reproduc- testicles into the passage of the fe- 
tive Organs. male is of slight importance in study- 
ing heredity and these organs sel- 
dom require attention. The testicles produce very large 
numbers of bodies, the spermatozoa (spermatozoon, sin- 
gular). These when discharged from the body during 
the act of service are contained in a white fluid, alkaline 
in character, the whole constituting the semen or seminal 
fluid. 

After the act of service a considerable amount of the 

seminal fluid can usually be found upon the floor of the 

vagina, though the testimony of 

Essentials of some of those who have successfully 

Conception. practiced artificial impregnation of 

mares is that at least a part of the 

fluid is present in the uterus soon after copulation. The 



FACTS CONCERNING REPRODUCTION 43 

Spermatozoa, which are capable of some motion, work 
forward through the uterus into the Fallopian tubes. 
Here they surround the ovum to the interior of which 
a single spermatozoon penetrates. This union of 
the male and female reproductive bodies constitutes 
fertilization. The united ovum and spermatozoon gravi- 
tate to the womb, where, if conditions are favorable, 
growth and development ensue and conception has been 
accomplished. It is positively known that a new animal 
is the result of the union of one ovum and one spermato- 
zoon. The reason for the preparation of such a great 
number of the male bodies, of which only one is essential 
to reproduction, lies partly in the likelihood of a large 
proportion of them failing to reach the ovum, or though 
arrived there having lost their vitality. Any condition 
that prevents the union of a healthy ovum with a healthy 
spermatozoon under normal conditions, renders impossi- 
ble the production of a new animal. Any such obstruc- 
tion present in the female is known as barrenness. Ina- 
bility on the part of the male to supply healthy sperma- 
tozoa is spoken of as sterility. 

Barrenness may result from a diseased condition of 

the ovaries. Mares and cows that are continuously in 

heat and fail to conceive are com- 

„ monly so affected. In such cases no 

Barrenness. , i i i . . 

normal ova are produced and treat- 
ment is usually unsatisfactory. Ex- 
cessive fattening during the growing period may derange 
the ovaries, especially if the elements that support growth 
are scantily furnished or if exercise and outdoor life are 
restricted. The os may be so tightly closed as to prevent 



44 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

the entrance of the spermatozoa. This is common in 
mares that are quite old when first bred and in heifers 
kept in very high condition. In artificial impregnation 
some of the seminal fluid is taken from the floor of the 
vagina and placed within the womb of the same or an- 
other female, thus overcoming any trouble arising from 
the condition of the os. In difficult parturitions the os is 
sometimes lacerated and heals with an enlargement that 
closes the passage. Acidity of the secretions of the womb 
also causes barrenness. Reproductive cells, both male and 
female, require an alkaline medium. If through any dis- 
eased condition the fluids of the womb become acid, the 
spermatozoa perish before reaching the ovum or else the 
fertilized ovum is destroyed. It is for the remedy of 
such conditions that the yeast treatment is so commonly 
recommended for uncertain breeders, but it is not uni- 
formly successful. 

Absence of procreative power in the male must be due 

either to failure to produce normal spermatozoa or failure 

to convey them to the organs of the 

r., .,-. female. The first named is the most 

ij tCTtltt'V 

common cause of sterility. The 
preparation of reproductive bodies 
is a deep-seated process and draws heavily on the vitality 
of the animal. It is essential that a breeding animal be 
maintained in the best of physical condition by judicious 
and liberal feeding, reasonable exercise and intelligent 
management. A few causes isnderlie nearly all manifes- 
tations of sterility. In stallions and in aged bulls tem- 
porary sterility sometimes follows a slight and often a 
radical change of location. It is more often caused by an 



FACTS COXCERXIXG REPRODUCTION 45 

excessive proportion of feeds of a fattening character and 
by a minimum of work or exercise. 
Number of Excessive service may so decrease 
Services. the number or vitaHty of the sperma- 

tozoa as to produce steriHty. In no 
event can a second service overcome obstacles to concep- 
tion in either parent. One satisfactory service furnishes 
a superabundance of spermatozoa ; other services can only 
exhaust the vitality of the male. If wrong conditions are 
indicated or suspected a remedy should be used before 
mating is allowed. 

It is thought that the breeding of sows late in the 
period of heat renders more certain the presence of active 
spermatozoa at the time the last ova leave the ovaries, 
thus ensuring fertilization of all ova produced. Inasmuch 
as the number of spermatozoa is so great it is evident 
that the number of young to a litter must be controlled 
bv the female unless the male be so seriously overtaxed as 
to lower the number or vitality of 
Size of spermatozoa, or unless mating oc- 

Litter, curs at a time too far removed from 

the time of production of the ova, 
so that either or both perish before fertilization is accom- 
plished. The number of rudimentary eggs or ova pres- 
ent in the ovary is much greater than the number that can 
possibly be discharged in a lifetime. Any condition which 
would augment the production of ova in sheep or swine 
would of course add to the number of young produced 
at a birth. A normal, well nourished dam might be ex- 
expected to mature more ova at one time, but no direct 
influence can be brought to bear upon this function. The 



46 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

egg cell or ovum is expelled from the follicle of the ovary 
in which it was prepared at the time of the evidence of 
''heat" and ordinarily before copulation occurs. It is not 
known just how long an ovum retains its life after be- 
ing discharged, but it is probably a considerable time. 
With the female organs in an entirely normal state it is 
believed that the spermatozoa may remain active for sev- 
eral days after their introduction. In one case, with a 
rabbit, spermatozoa are known to have functioned ten 
days after copulation.* 

The statement was made in the preceding chapter that 
the new animal develops from tw^o single germ cells, an 

egg or ovum from the dam and a 

Influence of sperm cell or spermatozoon from the 

Sire and Dam, sire. It is natural to entertain the 

thought that the dam, during the 
months of gestation in which she carries and nourishes 
the developing offspring, has opportunity to give to it a 
stronger impress than was received from the sire. Un- 
doubtedly much depends upon the nourishment afforded 
the foetus by the dam and this important feature is re- 
served for later discussion. The actual connection be- 
tween the membranes enveloping the foetus and the inner 
surface of the womb allow absorption from the maternal 
into the foetal circulation of material for the support of 
growth, but there can be no blood current from one to 
another. Furthermore, we know that while blood carries 
building material to the various parts of the body the 
ability to shape the material rests, not in the blood, but 
in the contents of the cells that make up the part. 

■■^"Transactions P.oyal Society," Series B, No. 196. 



FACTS CONCERNING REPRODUCTION 47 

Observation clearly corroborates the idea that the dam 
has no opportunity to dominate the make-up of the off- 
spring more than is enjoyed by the sire ; indeed the claim 
seems well founded at times that the sire's influence ex- 
ceeds that of the dam. It is clear that aside from feeding 
the embryo animal the entire determination of what that 
embryo is to become resides within the two cells with the 
union of which the new life was inaugurated, and the one 
from the sire contains active material equal in amount and 
determining power to that in the dam's contribution to the 
embryo offspring. Any particular points or conformation 
or fitness for special agricultural requirements that are to 
characterize any descendant of a long line of carefully 
selected ancestry must have its representation in one of 
these two sexual cells. Clearly then, it is of first im- 
portance that we fully understand the nature and be- 
havior of these germ cells and their relation to the parent 
body. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE GERM CELLS. 

The spermatozoa were first observed in the product of 
the male organs in 1677, though their function was not 
then known. In 1827 the ovum was found and under- 
stood to be the seat of new Hfe, though it was not until 
1843 that the necessity of the union of ovum and sper- 
matozoa was made clear and not until thirty years later 
that the significance of such union was realized. 
Though of unusual shape and make up, each of 
these reproductive bodies consists of but a single cell. 
A cell is a unit of structure in all plant or animal tissue 
as is a brick the unit in a wall. Growth consists of an 
increase in the number of cells, made possible by the ma- 
terial carried to the growing part by the blood. New cells 
produced by growth always re- 
Cell semble those existing in the part be- 

Grozvth. cause they derive their principal and 

controlling part from the older 
ones. This controlling part or seat of the greatest activ- 
ity is the nucleus which is shown at A in the ovum 
in Fig. 2b. Here the nucleus is small in proportion to the 
whole cell because of the extraordinary amount of out- 
side material in the egg cell. The contents of the nucleus 
in a germ cell are believed to be the chief if not the sole 
vehicle of heredity between the offspring and the parent 

(48) 



THE GERM CELLS 49 

body within which the germ cell is produced. That the 
contents of these nucleii of all cells have some unusual 
qualities is evident from their behavior. It is the prac- 
tice of the biologist to add clearness to the distinction 
of parts of material under examination by staining that 
material with chemical preparations. It invariably hap- 
pens that when living tissue is so stained the contents of 
the nucleus take on a deeper and more striking color than 

Nudeus £nd-ttnob /1iddJe-/)/€ce £nve/ope of tal/ AxhJ-filamefit f/j(/-pJece 




Acroso/ne 

FIG 2A.— DIAGRAM OF FLAGELLATE SPERMATOZOON. 









ovum. 



FIG. 2B.— AN OVUM CONTAINED IN THE GRAAFIAN FOLLICLE OF THE 
OVARY BEFORE BEING DISCHARGED. THE OVUM HAS A DIAMETER 
OF 1-127TH OF AN INCH. A, NUCLEUS OF OVUM. 

do other parts of the cell, evidencing a peculiarity of 
composition. For this reason the substance within the 
nucleus is called chromatin. Other grounds for attaching 
unusual significance to the chromatin are found in the 
intricate processes provided for in its division every time 
one cell becomes two cells. While the chromatin is 



50 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

dividing" with striking exactness the outer part of a par- 
ent cell gives a half of itself to each 
The new nucleus, but this halving evi- 

Chromatin. deuces little or none of the design 

and exactness observed in the chro- 
matin division. These facts apply wnth equal force to 
all body cells and to germ cells in their preparatory 
stages. The detail of the processes by which one cell 
becomes two cells is shown in Fig. 3. The unusual pro- 
visions for an equal and careful division of the contents 
of the nucleus, while the remainder of the cell divides 
with so little apparent system, lends color to the idea 
that the nuclear substance is of. greatest importance to 
the resulting cells. 

After division the chromatin again resolves itself into 
a granular condition and it is believed that substances 
pass out through the nuclear wall and control the entire 
cell and thus the direction of the development of the 
entire organism resides in the chromatin of its cells. It 
is sometimes claimed that the cytoplasm, the cell ma- 
terial outside the nucleus, exerts a controlling influence, 
but evidences of such may be due to presence of the 
chromatin that has migrated from the nucleus into the 
cytoplasm. In any body we may trace this chromatin 
material through successive divisions back to the orig- 
inal ovimi and spermatozoon that originated the new 
being. This chromatin or hereditary material is present 
in all growing cells in the form of elongated and crudely 
cylindrical bodies spoken of as chroinosoincs. The num- 
ber of chromosomes in the nucleii of the cells is the 
same throughout the body and never varies in the same 



THE GERM CELLS 



51 




clirornocl"in 

thneoxA 



cer\tro5ome 




cKrornoSoMncs 





FIG. 3.— PROCESSES OF CELL DIVISION. 

1. Cell in resting stage. 

2. The chromatin is formed into a skein and held upon numerous strands between 

two centrosomes. 

3. The chromatin has broken up into four chromosomes. This drawing is from 

an organism that normally has but four chromosomes. 

4. Each chromosome has split into two, and the parts are going toward the cen- 

trosomes. Note the indentation of the cell wall. 

5. Two new cells, each with a nucleus in which the chromatin is in the granular 

resting stage. (Drawn by H. W. Vaughan.) 



52 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

Species or class of animal. In our common animals the 
most accurate count possible shows the chromatin in 
each cell to be made up of sixteen chromosomes. 

'The remarkable fact has now been established w^ith 

high probability that every species of plant or animal 

has a fixed and characteristic num- 

The ber of chromosomes, which regu- 

Chroinosomes. larly recurs in the division of all its 
cells, and in all forms arising by 
sexual reproduction the number is even. Thus, in some 
of the sharks the number is thirty-six ; in certain gastero- 
pods it is thirty-two; in the mouse, the salamander, the 
trout, the lily, twenty-four ; in the worm sagitta, eighteen ; 
in the ox, guinea pig and in man the number is said to 
be sixteen."* 

It was said that the primitive or rudimentary germ 
cells multiply just as do cells in other parts, namely by 
each chromosome being split and donating half of its 
substance to the nucleus of the new cell. If the new 
animal produced by the union of a germ cell from either 
parent is to possess the number of chromosomes normal 
to a cell characteristic of its class some reduction of the 
number sixteen in the primitive bodies must be effected, 
otherw^ise there would be a doubling up and hopeless con- 
fusion. The German zoologist, Weismann, in 1887, 
several years prior to the actual discovery, predicted that 
it would be found that the first form of the germ cells 
experienced some such reduction in the number of their 
chromosomes before reaching their mature form. 

This process (maturation) of reducing the number 

*Wilson, "The Cell," p. G7. 



THE GERM CELLS 53 

of chromosomes in preparing a mature germ cell was 
first observed and understood about 
Preparation of the the year 1889. Since that time it 
Germ Cells. has been seen to occur in sections 

from the ovaries and testicles of 
most of the larger animals and the process is a common 
subject of study in zoological laboratories. The special 
reducing process known in the female as oogenesis, 
and as spermatogenesis in the male, is apparently solely 
for taking from each germ cell one-half its chromosomes. 
No such thing occurs except with cells that are to be 
used in reproduction. In the male this process is 
continuous, and perfected spermatozoa are stored in con- 
siderable numbers. Maturation or reduction of the chro- 
mosomes of the female tgg takes place quite rapidly and 
just prior to union with a spermatozoon. In some in- 
stances it is known to have occurred after the sperma- 
tozoon has passed through the wall of the ovum. Fig. 
4 furnishes a parallel diagram illustrating the formation 
of spermatozoa and ova. This process of reduction is a 
basis for explaining many perplexing occurrences in 
breeding and is worthy of careful examination. 

Fig. 5 shows the stages in the reduction of the 
chromosomes of an Qgg cell; only six of the chro- 
mosomes are shown. In farm animals each germ cell 
so reproduced would have eight chromosomes. The 
larger one with which the mass of food is retained 
is the mature egg or ovum ; the other three perish. The 
processes of reduction of the number of chromosomes 
follow each other without intervals and are to all ap- 
pearances solely designed to prevent the doubling of the 



54 



BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 




c 

o n 
15 



^^ 



i2 !» 



a, u 
> V 



■Bo 

to rt 



number of chromosomes in the embryo which would fol- 
low if reduction did not take place. The later union of 
spermatozoon and ovum, each with one-half as many 
chromosomes as are normal to the species, restores the 



THE GERM CELLS 



55 






FIG. 5.— REDUCTION OF THE CHROMOSOMES OF AN EGG CELL.— 1, early 
germ cell, oogonium, with whole number of chromosomes — paternal, black 
dots; maternal, clear rings; 2, division of oogonial cell; 3, first polar spindle; 
4, first polar body; 5, second polar spindle and division of second polar body; 
6, egg after extension of polar bodies. — Reproduced from "Morgan's Experi- 
mental Zoology," by permission of The MacMillau Co. 



56 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

correct number in the fertilized egg from which the off- 
spring develops. 

On the mother's side, then, the new animal is limited 
to receiving such qualities as were represented in the 

eight chromosomes that chanced to 

Significance of the remain in the ovum. The sixteen 

Chromosome. originally present in the immature 

egg were derived in equal numbers 
from each grandparent. The process of preparing the 
male germ cells is altogether analogous to that ob- 
served in the female. There is no considerable accumu- 
lation of food within the male cell and the four bodies 
produced in the male organs are similar to each other 
in appearance and possibilities. 

The spermatozoa, by virtue of the wriggling motion 
produced by their tail-like appendages shown in Fig. 2a. 

find their way to meet the ovum 

ordinarily within the tube connect- 
FertilbaHon* .^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^_ ^^ j^ ^^^ 

known how long a time is occupied 
by the spermatozoa in reaching the ovum. The difficulty 
in procuring actual data is obvious. In one case in a rab- 
bit, the ovum and spermatozoa were found united two 
and three-quarter hours after copulation. Though many 
spermatozoa attach themselves to the exterior of the ovum 
but one enters. Thus it is a matter of chance which eight 
of the chromosomes of the sire will meet the contribu- 
tion of the dam. Considering the existence of the heredi- 
tary material in sixteen unit bodies and allowing for the 

*The production and union of the germ cells is admirably treated in 
"Physiology of Reproduction" by F. H. A. Marshall. 



THE GERM CELLS 



0/ 




FIG. 6.— THE FERTILIZATION OF THE EGG.— A, egg surrounded by spermato- 
zoa; on the right, one has just penetrated the egg membranes and is enter- 
ing the egg cytoplasm; egg nucleus in the center. B, egg nucleus with 
chromatin reticulum on left; on right, the sperm nucleus preceded by its 
centrosome and attraction sphere. C, egg nucleus on the left, sperm nucleus 
on the right of the center of the egg; stage immediately preceding the divi- 
sion of the centrosome. D, the centrosome has divided, the two attraction 
spheres separate to form the first cleavage spindle; the chromosomes of the 
egg and sperm nuclei clearly visible and indistinguishable (in the figure the 
egg chromosomes are black, the sperm chromosomes shaded). E, the first 
cleavage spindle, with splitting of chromosomes. F, completion of first cleav- 
age; two-celled Stage, each nucleus contains four chromosomes — two from the 
egg and two from the sperm. (After Boveri.) Reproduced from Jordan's 
"Foot-Notes to Evolution," by permission of D. Appleton & Company. 



58 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

variable tendencies contained in the individual chromo- 
somes there need be no occasion for surprise when suc- 
cessive matings of the same parents fail to produce identi- 
cal progeny. The spermatozoon having entered the ovum, 
their chromosomes coalesce and the seed or embryo of 
the new animal is complete. With favorable conditions 
growth and development ensue. The repeated divisions 
carry the leaven of the chromosomes to all parts of the 
body to form the most minute portions of the new indi- 
vidual. The development of the embryo is quite analo- 
gous to the production of a new plant from food secured 
from the natural sources and built up in the seed. 

All of the non-nuclear material present in the ferti- 
lized Qgg is brought there by the ovum, but this material 
is not considered to convey influences of importance in 
the subsequent development. 

As stock breeders, and therefore interested in the 
problem of heredity, we are not primarily concerned 
with the embryonic stages succeeding the union of the 
ovum and spermatozoon. Viewed in any way the pro- 
duction of a perfect foetus from the enlargements and 
divisions of two single special cells is a most marvelous 
process. Though marvelous it is no less comprehensible 
than is the development of a mature fruit-bearing plant 
from a single seed. The chromatin or the virtual seed 
material sends off its various component parts, and rep- 
resentation in the successive stages of change and the 
chromatin in any cell of the completed form is traceable 
directly back to the reproductive cells. The further study 
of this tangible vehicle of heredity is therefore of funda- 
mental interest. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE HEREDITARY MATERIAL. 

Although stock breeders have received many inter- 
esting suggestions and directions from scientists during 

the last few years the facts of hered- 

ScieJitists and ity are far from being an open book 

Breeders. even to the scientists. It may be 

stated here that the most suggestive 
expressions the scientists have given to the breeders re- 
late to the creation of new forms and the production and 
fixation in our domestic animals of characters not now 
common. In these pages the endeavor is chiefly to pre- 
sent such matter as may permit a more complete under- 
standing of the physical basis of breeding, and the object 
is not so much the discussion of means of adding new 
types and characters as it is to stimulate a study that 
shall result in greater uniformity of excellence among 
the existing stock and a closer resemblance of the major- 
ity to the present best. In arriving at the fertilization 
of the ovum by the spermatozoon, or the planting of the 
seed of the new animal, we have adhered to incontro- 
vertible facts. Though entirely probable it has not been 
fully demonstrated that the chromatin is the exclusive 
seat of heredity. Even if it is not it is the active part of 
the cells which do carry all of heredity, and its changes 
are highly significant. 

(59) 



60 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

So far as concerns any intimate knowledge of the 
make-up of the chromosomes or the distribution among 
them of the control of various por- 
Inhcritancc tions of the body we are entirely 

through in the dark. We may at best recog- 

Chromosomcs. nize the combined chromosomes as 
carrying all that is transmitted and 
any practical consideration tliereof must regard the chro- 
mosomes simply as portions of the hereditary material. 
Whether one chromosome could by itself if necessary di- 
rect the development of an entire animal or whether the 
germs of different parts or organs are carried in separate 
chromosomes can hardly be conjectured. Regarding 
the chromatin simply as the hereditary material, with 
the facts that have been stated we can account for 
the lack of similarity in tlie offspring of two parents. 
Farmers who undertake to raise a pair of matched horses 
by breeding a mare to the same stallion in two succes- 
sive seasons are frerju.ently at a loss to account for the 
great disappointnient. 

Every cell in the body contains sixteen chromosomes, 
the direct product of the original group bequeathed 
equally by the two parents. In the preparation of the 
germ cells we know that one-half the chromatin bodies 
are eliminated. Considering at present, for the sake of 
clearness, a female of a species for 
Possible Chromo- which four is the regular number of 
some Comhina- chromosomes, we know that in a 
tion in Ovum. germ cell of that female only two 
chromosomes will be presen.t to con- 
vey hereditary influences. It is impossible to know or 



THE HEREDITARY MATERIAL 61 

foretell which two of the original four bodies will be 
preserved. If we consider the four chromosomes to bear 
numbers from one to four, then while one and two may 
be in the ovum produced at one period, another ovum 
produced may contain the same combination again, or, 
it may contain numbers three and four or any two of 
the number present in whichever one of the primitive 
tgg cells is being developed into an ovum. Any one 
of the following combinations is equally as likely as any 
other to be present in the ovum produced at any certain 
period : 



1 and 2, 


2 and 3, 


1 and 3, 


2 and 4, 


1 and 4, 


3 and 4. 



That the dam of an amimal of a species of even four 
chromosomes should make exactly the same contribution 
to two successive offsprings is highly improbable, yet our 
larger animals have sixteen chromosomes to a cell. 

The same considerations obtain on the sire's side. All 

divisions of the primitive spermatozoa remain functional, 

but only one is utilized in fertili- 

Possiblc Chroma- Ration, therefore the probabilities 

some Combinations are the same as with the female. 

in Spermatozoa. Designating the chromosomes of 

the paternal cells as five, six, seven, 

and eight, a single spermatozoon has equal chances for 

carrvinof anv one of the following: 

5 and 6, 6 and 7, 

5 and 7, 6 and 8, 

5 and 8. 7 and 8. 

• When fertilization occurs we know that some one of 



62 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

the equally probable maternal combinations will unite 
with some one of the equally 
Equally Probable probable paternal combinations. 
Results of Any one of the pairs in the ma- 

Fertilization. ternal list has equal probability of 

joining with any one of the pa- 
ternal list. 

Maternal Paternal 

1 and 2, 5 and 6, 

1 and 3, 5 and 7, 

1 and 4, 5 and 8, 

2 and 3, 6 and 7, 

2 and 4, 6 and 8, 

3 and 4, 7 and 8. 

The offspring will receive one of these equally prob- 
able sets of chromosomes : 



1-2 


and 


5-6, 


2-3 


and 


5-6, 


1-2 


and 


5-7, 


2-3 


and 


5-7, 


1-2 


and 


5-S, 


2-3 


and 


5-8, 


1-2 


and 


6-7, 


2-3 


and 


6-7, 


1-2 


and 


6-8, 


2-3 


and 


6-8, 


1-2 


and 


7-8, 


2-3 


and 


6-8, 


1-3 


and 


5-6, 


2-4 


and 


5-6, 


1-3 


and 


5-7. 


2-4 


and 


5-7, 


1-3 


and 


5-8, 


2-4 


and 


5-8, 


1-3 


and 


6-7, 


2-4 


and 


6-7. 


1-3 


and 


6-8, 


2-4 


and 


6-8, 


1-8 


and 


7-8, 


2-4 


and 


7-8, 


1-4 


and 


5-6, 


3-4 


and 


5-6, 


1-4 


and 


5-7, 


3-4 


and 


5-7, 


1-4 


and 


5-8, 


3-4 


and 


5-8, 


1-4 


and 


6-7, 


3-4 


and 


6-7, 


1-4 


and 


6-8 


3-4 


and 


6-8, 


1-4 


and 


7-8, 


3-4 


and 


7-8. 



It is apparent that from two parents of a species with 
four chromosomes it is possible to have thirty-six Indi- 
viduals, no two of which would be identical. Of course, 
the majority would largely be of the same make-up, but 
in the two combinations written first and last there would 
be a very wide dissimilarity. The contrast of these two 
possibilities is the basis of the seeming impossible state- 



THE HEREDITARY MATERIAL 63 

nient we sometimes hear, that two offspring of the same 
parents may be unrelated to each other. 

If we consider our larger animals that are believed to 
possess sixteen chromosomes we find amazing possibili- 
ties. Taking the possible number of combinations of 
eight chromosomes that can be made up from sixteen in 
either parent and exhausting the number of unions that 
may be produced from these two sets, it is found that 
without duplication we may have combinations to the 
number of 65,536. 

In view of the immense field of possibilities it is 

not surprising that we seldom find two animals that even 

seem to be identical or even nearly 

Why Related enough so to make a matched pair. 

Animals Differ. Some of the high-class animals pro- 
duced by supposedly indifferent 
parents are doubtless the outcome of the rare occurrence 
of a combination of the best of material of each parent 
and the elimination of that tending to produce inferiority. 
Also some of the very mediocre offspring of renowned 
parents may be attributed to an exceedingly un fortuitous 
retention of the chromatin productive of inferior charac- 
ters and the elimination of the desirable. It is undeni- 
able that in this vital process of heredity there is and must 
ever be a large element of chance. Chance may govern 
what portions of the material will go to each offspring, 
but if it were possible to assure ourselves that all of 
each parent's supply was representative of good we might 
be careless of chance. However, it is not necessary or 
justifiable to assume that each chromosome is entirely 
different from all the others in the same or in another 



64 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

parent. In all probability they are largely similar. But 
they may be arranged in an infinite variety of ways and 
this arrangement is beyond all control. Though impos- 
sible to bring any influence to bear upon the manner of 
separating the portion of hereditary material for the 
new animal, we can yet assure ourselves of a desirable 
outcome by limiting ourselves to such animals as give 
us reason to believe that any selection from their stock 
of hereditary substance would contain the minimum of 
possibilities for undesirable characters. 

To achieve the greatest possible measure of control 
over heredity is the aim and need of the breeder of ani- 
mals adapted to special uses. He- 
Basls of Control- redity is chiefly if not entirely con- 

liiig Heredity. veyed by the chromosomes of the 
germ cells. The elimination of some 
of these chromosomes and the amazing array of combi- 
nations that may be effected have all to do with determin- 
ing the make-up of every creature. No degree of human 
influence over these processes is conceivable. How then 
has it been possible for the builders of breeds and types 
to mold the animal form so nearly to their liking? The 
answer is, by the selecting for mating of animals con- 
taining chromatin or hereditary material with the maxi- 
mum possibilities of desirable features and the minimum 
of those undesirable; this done, no matter what heredi- 
tary bodies are eliminated or combined the result is still 
for good, and any few chance representations of 
unwelcome qualities are hopelessly in the minority. 



CHAPTER VII. 

ORIGIN OF THE HEREDITARY MATERIAL. 

The phenomena discussed in the preceding pages give 
some conception of the fundamental nature of the forces 
to be dealt with. They suggest ex- 
The planations of occurrences otherwise 

Problem, perplexing, but manifestly before 

we can undertake to formulate 
means to purify the hereditary material we must know 
something of its source. A consideration of the rela- 
tion of that substance to the parent body is in order. 
The germ cells were traced from their rudimentary stages 
in the ovaries and testicles, but from whence did these 
organs derive this material of such extraordinary potency ? 
We have arrived at the end of our positive knowledge 
of hereditary processes. No examination or experiment 
has as yet revealed all the facts re- 
Necessity and garding the immediate source of the 
Value of Theory, contents of the sexual cells. Our 
embryologists explain development 
of the tissue layers and later of separate organs from 
the fertilized germ cell. But as to just what goes into 
the new reproductive organs there is no definite knowl- 
edge, though in the embryonic development of some low^ 
er forms there is evidence that an early segregation from 
the total parental germ plasm isolates a portion for re- 

(65) 



66 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

serve in the new reproductive organs while the main 
amount is dissipated in the building of the body. In view 
of the great desirability of understanding the origin of 
this vital substance, the best that scientists can do is to 
theorize. That theory which accords with the facts and 
w^hich best accounts for the various manifestations of 
heredity is the one which will be of greatest service. 

Darwin believed that the reproductive organs acted in 

somewhat the same manner as do the secreting organs 

of the body, the material they se- 

Darwin's crete consisting of minute particles 

Theory, that enter the blood circulation from 

all the cells of the body and are 

withdrawn, in the ovaries of the female or testicles of 

the male, and built up into the ova or spermatozoa. 

Weismann considers that the hereditary material is 
not drawn from the body but that rather a small propor- 
tion of the same material received 
An Opposite from the parents is reserved intact 
View in the reproductive organs and 

there remains until the animal 
reaches breeding age and then be- 
comes active and produces the germ cells. 

These are the two main ideas on the subject. Actual 
examination or experiment to determine the facts seems 
impossible. We are therefore forced to base our prac- 
tice on that explanation which seems most satisfactorily 
to explain the occurrences. If Darwin's suggestion be 
accepted we must chiefly emphasize the individuality of 
the parents rather than the ancestry, while the reverse is 
true if we think with Weismann. 



ORIGIN OF THE HEREDITARY MATERIAL 61 

In view of the fundamental importance of an intel- 
ligent idea of the source of the hereditary substance it 
is desirable and fair to more ex- 
Pangenesis, plicitly present the views of the two 

scientists referred to. Darwin's 
theory is known as "Pangenesis'' and in his 'The Varia- 
tion of Plants and Animals under Domestication" he 
outlines his proposed explanation of the method of 
heredity in these words : 

"It is universally admitted that the cells or units of 
the body increase by self -division or proliferation, retain- 
ing the same nature, and that they ultimately become con- 
verted into various tissues and substances of the body. 
But besides this means of increase I assume that the units 
throw off minute granules which are dispersed through- 
out the whole system; that these, when supplied with 
proper nutriment, multiply by self-division and are ulti- 
mately developed into units Hke those from which they 
were originally derived. These granules may be called 
'gemmules'. They are collected from all parts of the sys- 
tem to constitute the sexual elements and their develop- 
ment in the next generation forms a new being ; but they 
are likewise capable of transmission in a dormant state 
to future generations and may then be developed. Gem- 
mules are supposed to be thrown off by every unit, not 
only during the adult state, but during each stage of de- 
velopment of every organism; but not necessarily during 
the continued existence of the same unit. Lastly, I as- 
sume that the gemmules in their dormant state have a 
mutual affinity for each other, leading to their aggrega- 
tion into buds, or into the sexual elements. Hence, it is 
not the reproductive organs, or buds, which generate a 
new organism, but the units of which each individual is 
composed. These assumptions constitute the provisional 
hypothesis which I have called 'Pangenesis.' " He later 



68 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

States : ''I am aware that my view is merely a provi- 
sional hypothesis or speculation; but, until a better one 
be advanced, it will serve to bring together a multitude 
of facts which are at present left disconnected by any 
efficient cause."* 

Weismann's hypothesis is in the main the exact op- 
posite of that of Darwin. He designates the chromatin 
or hereditary material as "germ 
Continuity of plasm." His idea of ''Continuity of 
Germ Plasm. Germ Plasm" regards the hereditary 
material as passing from generation 
to generation with the minimum of influence from, or 
association with the bodies of the parents.t He regards 
the ovaries and testicles as depositories of hereditary ma- 
terial. In them is deposited at an early stage of embry- 
onic life, a part of the germ plasm, there to be retained 
intact until its host arrives at the age for reproduction. 
Before reproduction is rendered possible this dormant 
material within the organs quickens into activity; it ab- 
sorbs food material from the circulation of its host, in- 
creases its volume and completes the various processes 
already explained as essential to the production of ova or 
spermatozoa. While at first thought it may appear strange 
to think of this germ plasm as living unmodified in the 
body from which it derives its support for increase, yet 
it is no more strange than the fact that widely different 
classes of plants draw from a particular soil those ele- 
ments they need, and by virtue of its inherent tendencies 
each constructs the material into a new plant strictly of 
the ancestral type and but very slightly modified, if at 

♦Chapter 27, "Animals and Plants under Domestication." 
f'Continuity of Germ Plasm" is fully presented by Weismann 
in a chapter on "The Germ Plasm." 



ORIGIN OF THE HEREDITARY MATERIAL 69 

all, by the medium in which it has its root. Even so may 
the germ plasm in the reproductive organs increase in 
quantity without changing materially its quality. 

In the manner of its behavior subsequent to fertiliza- 
tion, in diffusing throughout the embryo and dominating 
every cell, the germ plasm is quite comparable to the 
yeast plant. What corresponds to the yeast supply is 
within the reproductive organs and is there perpetuated 
much like a parasitic growth, and periodically sends off 
portions of itself to grow and diffuse through a whole 
new organism just as the small portion of yeast multi- 
plies, acts upon the flour in each batch of dough and 
changes it to a quite different product, while the yeast 
supply is continued indefinitely by affording the favor- 
able conditions to the smallest amount of the original 
stock. The buttermaker carrying a good starter for a 
long period affords another analogy. 

The many changes which animals undergo in the 
course of time would be accounted for by Weismann 
on the basis of selection from those 
The Explanations departures or innovations occasioned 
Compared. by the necessity of reproduction by 

sexes, which process we have stud- 
ied under the heads of maturation and fertilization. 
These vital considerations associated with the preparation 
and union of sexual cells as set forth in chapter five must 
not be confused with theory ; they are fully demonstrated 
facts. It will be recalled that it was Weismann who 
saw the necessity for reducing division and predicted 
such a discovery before it was actually made.* 

♦Weismann, "The Germ Plasm," chapter 8. 



70 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

The Darwinian theory would regard the germ cell as 
the epitome or concentration of the parent. While this 
might be conceivable for the production of most of the. 
organs, a difficulty is encountered in the common case 
of persistence of lambs' tails in flocks in which sheep have 
been docked in early life for scores of generations. Dar- 
win was not unmindful of this difficulty and met it by 
supposing the transmission of dormant gemmules carried 
down from early ancestors not docked, in sufficient num- 
bers to reproduce such parts, of which the absence in 
parents would otherwise preclude their presence in the 
offspring because of the impossibility of such gemmules 
being present. In this case and in many similar ones, the 
influence of such dormant gemmules preserved from re- 
mote parents seems to be the rule rather than the excep- 
tion. Weismann would regard the continuation of such 
characters not used or not present in the parents as regu^ 
lar and to be expected. Indeed his idea of continuity 
readily explains the persistence of such apparently need- 
less parts as the vermiform appendage and the chestnuts 
on the legs of horses. In earlier forms these structures 
were doubtless functional. Under the Darwinian idea 
their disappearance and recurrence in offspring could only 
occur through dormant gemmules, as the exception ; un- 
der the Weismann theor}^ such occurrences would be the 
rule rather than the exception, as we know they are in 
nature. 

If, however, we incline strongly to the theory of 
continuity of germ plasm we are apparently cut off from 
all possibility of the reflection in the offspring of even 
extreme conditions affecting their parents. It is ad- 



ORIGIN OF THE HEREDITARY MATERIAL 71 

mitted, however, that in extreme cases the lack or abund- 
ance of a specific substance in the system of the parent 
body may either retard or facihtate the multipHcation 
within the primary cell of some part of the germ plasm 
dependent upon such specific substance. Of course, in 
case of under-support of such hereditary elements they 
would not be entirely excluded from the germ cells, but 
the same conditions obtaining for several successive gen- 
erations would have a positive influence toward- weaken- 
ing such tendencies just as the opposite kind of support 
might strengthen them. This is the only provision made 
by Weismann for direct influence of environment upon 
heredity.* All else is due to the selection of the parents, 
governed either by natural demands or the artificial con- 
siderations obtaining in domestic animals. The selec- 
tion of parents for their valuable qualities constitutes con- 
tinual opportunity for modifying the make-up of germ 
plasm of the succeeding generations. 

Breeders who adhere to the idea contained in pange- 
nesis would naturally judge of an animal's value as a 

breeder altogether from the charac- 

Relation of Prac- ters he individually exhibits. His an- 

tice to the Theories, cestry would be of interest only for 

chance of conveyance of dormant 
gemmules which would not be of more than very second- 
ary importance. Although some breeders often permit 
what they deem a good line of ancestry to outweigh the 
individual characters of an animal, yet we must recog- 
nize the fact that all of our experienced and more suc- 

*W"eismann's views on this point are contained in a separate 
publication : "Germinal Selection as a Source of Definite Varia- 
tion." 



72 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

cessfiil breeders have been close students of pedigrees and 
their estimation of an animal's breeding powers has been 
based in large part on a knowledge of his ancestors. In 
so doing they have shown an appreciation of the chief 
principle of the Weismann idea, namely, that to mold 
our animals we must rely on changing the germ plasm 
by infusions by mating rather than by seeking to modify 
that substance by the influence of external conditions or 
being guided solely by external appearances. A concep- 
tion of the nature of the germ plasm contained in an 
individual must be based upon a knowledge of the an- 
cestors, from whom that germ plasm was obtained no less 
than upon individual appearances. The practical signifi- 
cance of this principle is the subject of the next chapter. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

BREEDING AND SELECTION. 

To say that the breeding of stock is fundamentally 
and chiefly a matter of selection is to repeat a truism. 
The primitive germ cells have been 
Basis of Control seen to go through important 
of Heredity. changes that determine what part 
of their contents shall be recon- 
veyed to the next generation. Any tendencies or char- 
acters not represented in the material contained in the 
mature ovum and spermatozoon that unite in fertilization 
can not by any possible means be found in the new ani- 
mal resulting from that union. Our only opportunity of 
controlling the make-up of the parental contributions to 
the offspring lies in becoming assured that in the whole 
hereditary substance of either parent there is nothing 
representative of objectionable characters; this being true, 
no matter what enters the embryo, the result is good. 

Realizing that the parent does not draw from the 
various parts of its own body the components of the 
germ plasm we must not allow our- 
Why O if spring selves to regard any parent's germ 
Resembles Parents, cell as a recapitulation or even as a 
representation of itself. Viewing 
the ancestral source of the germ plasm and its compara- 
tive independence of the influence of the body, the off- 

(73) 



74 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

spring then becomes an offshoot from the same stream 
that gave off the parent. Parent and offspring are simi- 
lar because they have a common origin. 

The numerous and distant sources from which any 
animal receives its inheritance are suggested in Fig. 7. 
The heavy lines from B and C, which enter A, repre- 
sent the actual hereditary material contribution by those 
parents from the store in their own bodies, which was 
also implanted in each by their respective parents, the 
grandparents of A. A has not inherited and cannot 
transmit any tendency or quality that has not been con- 
tributed through his parents or grandparents. Of course 
it is possible and not improbable that a part of all of C's 
inheritance from G may happen to be represented in the 
polar bodies that perished when the ovum from which 
A developed underwent maturation, and thus A's in- 
heritance through C may be stronger from F than from 
G or it may be the reverse or equal. This is indicated in 
the figure by the two lines of C's inheritance entering 
separately from F and G, the individuals contributing 
them, while the stream issuing from C draws from the 
combined supply an amount the same as entered from 
each of F and G, shown by the line leading from C be- 
ing no larger than either of those coming from F and G. 

A will be able to transmit good qualities in accord- 
ance with the degree of merit that was conveyed to him 
from his innumerable and distant 

Ancestry and progenitors through those that stand 
Prepotency. nearest him in descent. What pos- 
sibilities were carried by these 
channels of inheritance in their devious windings and 



BREEDING AND SELECTION 



GRANOSIRE. 




PIQ, 7. — Represents the dififerent lines or streams that enter into every animal's 
inheritance. The black circle in each case is the stored hereditary material 
within the body received from the lines entering on the right from the 
parents. The line leaving on the left represents the material of the germ 
cell given off to the individual it is shown to enter. 



76 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

what was subtracted from the stores for each germ cell 
cannot be shown however far back we may undertake to 
trace the stream. To be sure the fundamental charac- 
ters do not vary, but the features that give value to do- 
mestic animals are really minor ones so far as the re- 
semblance of any individual to his race is concerned. 

For the breeder's purpose it is sufficient to know the 
character of the material in those nearer courses that 
are most likely to contribute to what has been received 
by the individual in question. The nature of the inher- 
itance, reaching A from E and J, can be shown by the 
development that resulted in the conformation of the 
bodies of those ancestors. It can also be judged by the 
development in the bodies of other animals to whose in- 
heritance these individuals contributed. J's inheritance 
may have been a mixed one and some of his offspring 
may have exhibited undesirable features. If, however, 
it is known that E was a really good individual and pro- 
duced mainly good offspring of which B was one, we may 
consider the stream as having been purified from infe- 
riority in that part of its course. If examination of 
other lines shov/s that the flow from the sources of good 
inheritance has been added to only by other individuals 
whose superiority is attested by the merit of their off- 
spring, we are assured that the individual in which these 
streams unite must transmit the excellence of his strain. 
This enables us to understand the strong breeding pow- 
ers of animals whose inheritance traces exclusively 
through ancestors similar to each other in excellence. 
The stream of germ plasm has come to be of a pure and 
homogeneous makeup, and when mixed with that of an 



BREEDING AND SELECTION 17 

animal whose inheritance was not so restricted the pure 
material is able to dominate the miscellaneous tenden- 
cies from a mixed ancestry, and we have a pure-bred 
especially potent in stamping his likeness upon his off- 
spring. 

This figure also aids in explaining the phenomenon 
spoken of as atavism or reversion. The dam of H may 
have been of a red color, while the 
HoziJ Atavism sire and all the other individuals to 
May Occur. which B traces were black, and pro- 
duced only black offspring. The 
same may be true on the maternal side except that N 
has an inheritance of red which has been present in both 
G and C, but held in check by stronger tendencies to 
black. If an ovum produced by C and containing a 
strong infusion from N of tendency toward the red color 
is fertilized by a spermatozoon from B that also happens 
to carry the remnants of a tendency toward red, then 
such a union may hold in check the tendencies toward 
the black color. It is unlikely that the same parents 
would produce similarly endowed germ cells at another 
mating, and thus their subsequent progeny would be of 
the usual color, as is commonly observed to be the case 
with parents of red Angus calves. 

To be assured of having a breeding animal that will 
transmit the maximum of the good with the minimum of 
bad it is then necessary to select one that individually 
exhibits such an inheritance, and that has had no an- 
cestors from whom it might have received either active 
or dormant material to produce inferiority. As we pro- 
ceed backward the probabilities of inheritance from any 



78 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

one ancestor diminish, but the possible preservation and 
recurrence of the contribution of that ancestor must al- 
ways be reckoned with. The only practical method of 
directing heredity is to select for mating those animals 
that carry hereditary material of the desired potency and 
this can only be secured by the further selection of ap- 
proved ancestors. This suggests an explanation of the 
preference some breeders of note have had for breeding 
the sires they used. In so doing it was possible for them 
to be more fully familiar with the ancestry and more com- 
petent to determine with what other descents matings 
should be made. The foregoing suggests as an ideal prac- 
tice the selection of good individuals from good stock. 
These two fact®rs, individuality and pedigree, are the 
subjects of the next chapters. 



CHAPTER IX. 

INDIVIDUAL EXCELLENCE IN BREEDING 
ANIMALS. 

Any measure of control over heredity attained by any 
breeder must be through the wisdom of his selection of 

the parents and ancestors of his 

Foundation stock. Care and feeding have their 

Siock. part and are indispensable as aids, 

but selection is the basis of the 
whole work. Whether the endeavor be to build up a herd 
or stud for the production of a uniformly superior class 
of animals for feeding for market, or to produce animals 
for others to breed from, selection is of fundamental im- 
portance. No haphazard unstudied procedure in select- 
ing from the stock of others for a foundation, or indis- 
criminate culling of the increase of that foundation stock, 
can ever give satisfactory returns. It is not imperative 
that a person beginning the breeding of stock should an- 
ticipate and formulate a procedure for all possible contin- 
gencies, but the career of every breeder who has made 
himself known exhibits a quite clearly defined idea from 
the outset as to wherein his productions should differ 
from or accord with the various kinds and types to be 
found within his chosen breed. Later steps and plans 
may be decided upon in view of the outcome of earlier 

(79) 



80 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

work, but for best results there must be the recognition 
of a standard toward which to work. 

It might easily be possible to acquire a large or small 
aggregation of foundation females with each one a supe- 
rior individual in herself but unlike 
Types. each of the others. Perhaps the 

diversity of types is nowhere more 
noticeable than in draft horses. At one time a ringside 
spectator may see the highest premium awarded to a very 
wide low short-legged squarely built horse while in the 
succeeding ring preference may be given to a horse of 
more lofty appearance, rounder, neater, smoother, a less 
massive but more active kind. Both types are useful, 
feed well and sell well. Some users find the horse of 
the first type well qualified to perform the work placed 
upon him, while in another line of business the second 
type is more serviceable. One judge with an inclina- 
tion toward one type may send the premiums to that 
class of animals, while another judge at another time 
would give honors to the other. Complete agreement 
among authorities cannot be expected and is not desired. 
Both types are good property and fill their peculiar spheres 
of usefulness. The same holds true in other classes of 
stock. The type demanded by the cattle, hog, or sheep 
buyer is practically constant; but within each of the 
breeds of meat-producing stock there may be found types 
differing in size, rate of growth, rate of fattening, and 
grazing qualities, and consequently variously adapted to 
different sections of country or kinds of farming. The 
larger coarse later maturing and more rugged type may 
be more profitable to some men than the finer smaller 



INDIVIDUAL EXCELLENCE IN BREEDING ANIMALS 



81 



PEBCHERON STALLION CHARACTER, 



82 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

and more rapidly maturing kind, and each in turn may 
stand first in the showring and each may be vakiable and 
salable. 

Whatever may be true of the judge when acting offi- 
cially, from the view point of the man who is rearing 
stock for sale the situation is dif- 
Vahie of ferent. It is to his financial advan- 

Type. tage to have his young stock as 

nearly uniform as possible in type 
both for feeding and for selling. The same feature is of 
additional value to him who sells breeding stock. With 
a band of females of mixed type no one male could sire 
the same class of offspring from dams of varying stamp. 
There may be some very good ones from the inharmoni- 
ous matings and some rare lucky results, but uni- 
formity of appearance and strong power of transmission 
cannot result from such procedure. Nor could much uni- 
formity be looked for in the increase if the sire were of 
one type and the dams were all of one but a different 
type. The selection of and adherence to a type is a more 
vital matter than the selection of a breed. 

It is the aim to insure the greatest possible amount of 
certainty regarding the outcome of every mating. Deal- 
ing with matters so imperfectly 
Need of understood and so far from direct 

Full Study. control it is not surprising that the 

unexpected should often happen. 
Because the unexpected may and does happen makes it 
all the more imperative that all possible means of insur- 
ing the desirable outcome be fully observed. The distinc- 
lion among breeders lies not so much in the knowledge 



INDIVIDUAL EXCELLENCE IN BREEDING ANIMALS 83 




SHIRE STALLION CHARACTER. 



84 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

they possess as in the thoroughness and persistence with 
which they utihze all available information. If a pros- 
pective member of a breeding herd be of the type with 
which it has been decided to work, it remains to make 
a careful study of its conformation and all its individual 
characteristics. The shape of every part of the body, 
and every feature, such as disposition and digestion, is 
inherited. We do not believe that an animal accumulates 
contributions from its various parts and organs to form 
the germ cells, but we do consider that the germ cells 
are a growth from an unused portion of the germ plasm 
in the fertilized cell in which that animal had its origin. 
Every desirable or undesirable feature about the animal 
is represented in the germ plasm, but unless every por- 
tion of that material be so strongly charged with the rep- 
resentation of any specific character as to insure its 
presence in every germ cell then that character is quite 
likely to fail of transmission. Undesirable features have 
exactly the same opportunity to be passed to the off- 
spring as desirable ones, and the determination of what 
spermatozoon shall share in fertilization or what chromo- 
somes shall be in the ovum is beyond direction. To 
preclude the possibilities of unwelcome characters in the 
offspring it is therefore essential that the parents' store 
of germ plasm be as nearly as possible free from possi- 
bilities for inferiority, and evidence as to this is to be 
had by making a thorough study of every part and 
feature. We have quite generally recognized and clear- 
ly defined ideas of good conformation in all types of 
animals. Fitness to wisely select breeding stock nec- 
essarily assumes a complete familiarity with at least the 



INDIVIDUAL EXCELLENCE IN BREEDING ANIMALS 85 




SHROPSHIRE CHARACTER. 



86 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

class of Stock in question and some experience in com- 
paring and forming opinions of 

Breeder Must considerable numbers of individuals. 

Be a Judge. Study of an animal's fitness to be- 
come a member of a breeding herd 
should extend farther than the visible or external features 
of conformation. In meat-making animals many of the 
required points of structure are merely indications of the 
capacity for consuming feed and producing maximum 
gains therefrom. Facts and records regarding the ani- 
mal's feeding and producing qualities are usually obtain- 
able and are many times more reliable as a basis of esti- 
mate than the most pleasing indications of the same ca- 
pacities. With stock of which the usefulness may be 
made a matter of actual test, as is the case in dairy cattle, 
records of actual performance constitute the best possible 
evidence of individual merit, though age and various 
conditions affecting such a trial must be taken into ac- 
count. 

Among animals equally pleasing in build and appar- 
ently similar in efficiency of their special functions there 
often exists a marked variation in 
Prepotency. their power of transmitting their 

characteristics. Though such vari- 
ation may frequently be due to differences in lineage 
yet certain features of individuality are found to be 
quite uniformly associated with power of transmission or 
prepotency. Prepotency in untested breeders is evidenced 
by that combination of physical attributes that gives to 
any animal a pronounced individualism, or as breeders 
term it, character. It is not easy to analyze character 



INDIVIDUAL EXCELLENCE IN BREEDING ANIMALS 87 




HAMPSHIRE CHARACTER. COTSWOLD CHARACTER. 



88 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

into its component parts, but since il is so closely associ- 
ated with prepotency an explanation of the term as used 
in stock-breeding is very desirable. Character, or the ap- 
pearance of strong individualism, is 
Character. contributed to by three things : style, 

high development of the appear- 
ances associated with sex, and that robustness and vigor 
of expression that can only be present where perfect 
health and spirits are coexistent. 

Style as related to prepotency is allied more with 
breeding than with individuality. Its presence argues 
an inheritance from the animals produced by the fore- 
most breeders who have always sought to combine at- 
tractiveness with utility. Appearances associated with 
sex, masculinity or femininity are often regarded as the 
main evidence of prepotency. We cannot recognize de- 
grees in sex, but as in the case of a male the full de- 
velopment of the neck and front and the frontal bones 
of the face, though only secondary sexual qualities them- 
selves, manifest the activity and full vigor of the func- 
tional organs with which they are connected. Likewise 
in the female the neatness of the neck and refinement of 
the features of the face, and the gentle disposition, all evi- 
dence the assertion of the female tendencies that have 
much to do with the young, both before and after birth. 
The robustness and vigor of expression read in the coun- 
tenance and mainly in the eyes, and also reflected in bold- 
ness of movement, are probably the most directly associ- 
ated with prepotency of all the things that may be re- 
garded as contributing to character. The appearance and 
manifestation of maximum vigor and vitality can only be 



INDIVIDUAL EXCELLENCE IN BREEDING ANIMALS 89 




90 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

present where all organs of the body that have to do 
with digestion, circulation, respiration and the nervous 
system that controls all continuously perform their full 
work. This maximum efficiency of all organs makes 
up constitution and is indicated nowhere else so satis- 
factorily as in the expression of the countenance and in 
the general bearing, behavior and carriage. 

The presence of this condition, the complete health 

and nourishment of the body, insures the highest vigor, 

vitality and activity of the germ 

Significance cells. It cannot change the make- 

of Character. up of the germ plasm, but it may 
control its strength and power and 
thus give a much higher degree of prepotency than would 
be possible if the animal had been naturally weak or 
listless and low in physical vigor. The qualities that 
make up constitution and are therefore so closely akin to 
this character are inherent ones, represented in the germ 
plasm reserved in the parent for reproductive purposes, 
and therefore they may enter into the heredity of the off- 
spring just the same as any other feature of the indi- 
vidual's physique. When possessed of such inheritance 
the offspring is imbued with the functional capacities 
that will enable it to withstand retarding and debilitat- 
nig influences and, what is more important, to make the 
maximum response to careful and liberal feeding. The 
power to produce in proportion to the wisdom and liber- 
ality of the feeding is the fundamental distinction be- 
tween improved and natural animals. 

Sires of proved worth are often retained in active 
service until they reach an advanced age. So long as 



INDIVIDUAL EXCELLENCE IN BREEDING ANIMALS 91 

they remain in good physical condition and there is no 

noticeable decline in their impress 

Age and upon their get there is no reason 

Prepotency. for regarding age as a factor in 

prepotency. When continued in 

service after the beginning of physical decline there is also 

a decline in the character of their progeny, showing again 

the relation to prepotency of an unimpaired individuality, 

and showing also the necessity of judging vigor by actual 

appearances rather than by the number of years through 

which the animal has passed. 

Distinctive breed features such as color, shape of face 
or ear, or set of horn, are also a part of individuality 
as distinguished from pedigree. 
Fancy These features, commonly referred 

Points. to as fancy points, while of no im- 

mediate usefulness are of consider- 
able assistance in the selection of breeding stock. In the 
first place their presence is helpful because by the unin- 
itiated they are regarded as trademarks, guaranteeing the 
presence of those special qualities on which rests the 
value and popularity of the particular breed they adorn. 
Where found apart from tangible evidences of actual 
utility they of course avail but little. It must be borne 
in mind, however, that it has ever been the object of 
the intelligent and far-seeing breeders to fix upon their 
stock such distinctive and attractive features as will com- 
mend them to the public and also appeal to and please the 
searchers after qualities of utility. In some instances 
selection has been based more on fancy than on utility 
points, to the great detriment of the latter, but when 



92 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

found combined with proof or indications of real merit 
these fancy points serve as evidence of inheritance from 
the herds of the more discerning breeders and add assur- 
ance to the inheritance of and power to transmit the 
practical essentials. 

According to the view of heredity pervading this dis- 
cussion of individuality there is no possible means of a 
parent's transmitting to its progeny the effects of acci- 
dents or injuries. Exception must be made, however, to 
those abnormal conditions resulting from an inherited 
tendency toward such conditions. We do not 
believe that the germ cells carry representative material 
derived from each part of the parent body, but we do 
believe that the offspring will resemble the parent because 
they have a common source, and to be satisfied that the 
source is a good one we demand that the parent present 
high individual excellence as a proof thereof. 



CHAPTER X. 

PEDIGREES OF BREEDING ANIMALS. 

Experience and science each afford abundant proof 
that rigidness of selection must apply no less to ances- 
tors than to the present individual. We must judge of 
the hereditary material not alone by its accomplishment in 
a single instance but by its various sources and behavior 

in other instances of its existence. 

Progeny the It must be clearly recognized that 

Best Test. as a basis of estimate of breeding 

powers nothing can compare with 
actual test, and where the progeny of a possible purchase 
are to be seen, individuality and pedigree both become at 
best secondary factors. In judging the results of a breed- 
ing test, however, it is necessary to have careful and full 
regard for the character of animals with which the in- 
dividual was mated and the opportunity for development 
afforded the offspring. The parentage of increase of a 
fair degree of merit under limited opportunities is not 
satisfactory assurance of the ability to produce excellence 
when accorded the most favorable opportunity. It is but 
rarely, however, that an animal of proved excellence as a 
breeder is offered for sale, and selections have mainly to 
be made from untested stock on the basis of individuality 
and pedigree. 

(93) 



94 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

It is idle to discuss the relative importance of indi- 
viduality and ancestry. One may be as valuable as the 
other in indicating- what an animal will transmit ; neither 
can safely be ignored or slighted and no breeder of note 
has ever failed to be a close student of both. ^'Individual 
excellence by inheritance" is the watchword of those 
wdiose stock gives them the most uniform excellence of 
increase. 

Inasmuch as each parent contributed to the offspring 

equal amounts of hereditary material and also received 

equally from their parents in turn it 

Form of is necessary to place equal emphasis 

Pedigree on the paternal and maternal lines 

of descent. It is quite possible that 

the hereditary material bequeathed by one parent may be 

stronger for good or for bad than the contribution of the 





FIG. 8-TABULAR 


FORM 


OF ] 
D 

E 


PEDIGREE 


il 








B 






JJ 
















Ik 




A.. 








(F 




•Im 






















C 






















JN 










Vt 
















lo 





other. This may be due to more careful selection of 
that parent's ancestors, but it cannot be associated with 
either sex, and this further emphasizes the necessity of 
an examination of all the lines of descent. In arranging 
such lines of descent on paper for intensive study it is 



PEDIGREES OF BREEDING ANIMALS 95 

imperative that what is commonly known as the tabular 
arrangement shown in Fig. 8 be followed. Other forms 
of writing may be more economical of space and show 
a longer line of descent on one side, but for actual use in 
estimating breeding usefulness no other form is com- 
parable with the tabulation which shows clearly every 
line of descent. 

In studying an untested animal, represented by A in 
Fig. 8, whose individual make-up and qualities are ap- 
proved, further evidence is needed 
All Ancestors ' regarding what may be contained in 
Must Be Studied, and transmitted by his hereditary 
material, because we know that any 
quality or character represented in A's germ plasm may 
appear in his get whether or not it was exhibited by him- 
self. Crudely, A may be thought of as a composite or as 
an average of his ancestry, but from our knowledge of the 
facts of the preparation of the germ cells we recognize 
the possibility of having scanty or no inheritance from 
D, E, F, or G. It is also conceivable that there might 
have been handed down to him the impress of H or I or 
another in the same line much more strongly than from 
a nearer ancestor, all through the uncertainties of com- 
binations of chromosomes or the seeming caprices possible 
in the formation of germ cells. It is therefore necessary 
to consider each ancestor as being represented in A unless 
tangible facts justify the conclusion that inheritance from 
any certain individual has been eliminated. Since it is 
manifestly impossible to understand the ultimate source 
of the germ plasm which A has inherited so variously, a 
study of what it has done in its more recent phases prom- 



96 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

ises the greatest enlightenment in regard to its poten- 
tiahties. 

Since A is equally indebted to B and C we are natur- 
ally first concerned regarding those two animals and to 
them we may apply the tests we 
Breeding Records would prefer to apply to any animal 

Of Parents. in the following order : first, char- 

acter of offspring; second, individu- 
ality; third, origin or breeding. The first named is usu- 
ally practicable for parents and much greater value may 
be attached to the pedigree of an anin^al whose sire and 
dam are both proved to have produced offspring of merit. 
In considering the first produce of a sire or dam con- 
servatism would at least suggest awaiting an opportunity 
to inspect subsequent progeny, which is usually no hin- 
drance where sires are concerned. A few extra good and 
a large number of mediocre offspring would show the 
presence of potentialities for inferiority and compel the 
recognition of the possibility of a dormant inheritance of 
inferiority even in the more pleasing ones. Here, too, 
however, fair regard must l)e had for the opportunity for 
production of superior progeny afforded in their develop- 
ment and the choice of their other parent. Where the 
breeding test can be used it may properly outweigh all 
other considerations; in fact, some of the most noted 
matrons that have been frequent breeders and good moth- 
ers are far from attractive in appearance in their advanced 
years. 

When it seems desirable to still weigh the merits of 
an animal one or both of whose parents cannot be spoken 
for by their fruits, a full opportunity to study individu- 



PEDIGREES OF BREEDING ANIMALS 97 

aiity cannot be foregone. In studying individualities of 

parents it becomes imperative to in- 

Similarity of sist on their being at least very 

Type in Parents, similar in type. Nor would even 

championship honors in close com- 
petition be sufficient assurance, because it is quite possible 
that under different judges or in different situations both 
male and female may have been accorded highest honors 
and yet represent types vmsuited to each other. The 
progeny from such unions should certainly be required to 
first prove themselves capable of transmitting the blended 
excellence of their parents if indeed they have the unusual 
good fortune to exhibit a harmonious union of their di- 
vergent parental types. 

Showyard decisions at best constitute a very doubtful 
basis for the estimate of individual merit as a guide in 

breeding unless the selection is 

Value of Shozv made by one sufficiently familiar 

Aziwds. with his work to be able to make 

necessary allowance for official 
opinions and subsequent changes of form. In most 
classes of stock the show records of the progeny of indi- 
viduals in the pedigree under study will need to be relied 
upon to furnish evidence of their rank as breeders. A show 
record may do more or less than justice to a single ani- 
mal, but applied to what his offspring have done in the 
ring it is almost sure to represent his actual standing in 
his breed. Due consideration must be had for probable 
variations in opinion of judges and for the inequalities of 
competition on different occasions and at different places. 
Then, too, in weighing the achievements of the progeny 



98 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

of a particular sire or dam undue stress must not be laid 
upon a single offspring of phenomenal record to the ex- 
clusion of others of no note. 

Inheritance from a sire most of whose get could earn 

even fourth or fifth position or even honorable mention in 

harder competition would be much 

Fair Estimate preferable to that from an animal 
Of Sire. siring one champion and no others 

of more than very local repute or of 
fame borrowed from their kindred. Also in many 
instances a second premium is practically as honorable as 
a first in spite of the fact that nearly all the general ac- 
claim is accorded the holder of the end position. The 
prizes for get of sire and produce of dam awarded in our 
shows are the most valuable of all for showing the pre- 
potency of parents. 

Strange as it may seem, not one of the breeds has 
any official register of the results of showyard trials. One 
very laudable attempt was made by a Hereford breeder 
to establish a ''star list" which was arranged to show wnth 
a minimum of searching the achievements of every win- 
ner and producer of winners in the larger shows. Such 
publications, to fully meet the wants, must be prepared 
by persons who cannot be thought of as having any in- 
terest in any animal, herd or strain. Some of the beef 
cattle herd books have appended lists of awards at lead- 
ing shows, but so far these are not arranged to encourage 
even an anxious inquirer to attempt to procure the record 
of a particular animal. For the most part, information of 
this character must still be obtained from the history as 
recorded in the agricultural journals and periodicals and 



PEDIGREES OF BREEDING ANIMALS 99 

from association with persons in whose memories the 
facts have been preserved. 

With dairy cattle and race horses the records are much 
more useful. While showing is popular, merit is proved 
chiefly by actual test of function. 
Advanced A record of having produced 20 

Registers. pounds of butter in a week, or of 

having trotted a mile in 2:15, re- 
quires no consideration of errors in judgment or un- 
worthy competition. The standard is an absolute one and 
can be applied at any time or place. It is possible that 
such records may not fully represent the capacities of the 
individuals because of limited opportunities, and espe- 
cially with the cows a knowledge of food consumed dur- 
ing the test is desirable, but there can be no gainsaying 
that fact that under conditions surrounding the trial the 
animal possessed the ability to perform as recorded. Such 
trials also render it easy to state the achievements of the 
progeny of any sire or dam. The information made 
available in the ''Year Book" for trotting horse breeders 
is of the greatest service in selection and study of an- 
cestry and is doubtless in large measure accountable for 
the remarkable accomplishments in breeding for trotting 
speed. Tables similar to those in the ''Year Book" may 
be forthcoming for dairy breeds as soon as official test- 
ings have been in use for a sufficient time. Although 
the significance of showring prizes is less dependable than 
test records it would seem that a great help would be af- 
forded breeders of other classes of stock by preserving 
and publishing well arranged show records and compil- 
ing tables showing sires and dams with lists of names 



100 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

and achievements of their progeny that had been ex- 
hibited. 

The question may properly be raised, is it safe or fair 
to withhold our esteem from progenitors, which though 
worthy, w^ere allowed no opportu- 
Ohscured nity to make a show career or to 

Merit. take a record ? Doubtless some ani- 

mals of extraordinary capacities 
have been allowed to live and die in comparative obscur- 
ity. Such individuals must necessarily have been the 
property of men not active nor prominent in the affairs 
of the breed handled ; otherwise the merits of their stock 
would have been made known. If such an animal were 
unrightfully retained in obscurity with no opportunity to 
justify himself through his offspring, the probability of 
underestimating any valuable inheritance from him is very 
small because his excellence must have died with him. 

Animals without offspring to speak for them, besides 

standing on their individuality must also lean in turn 

upon their parents, and even when 

Grandparents. no such lack exists the grandparents 
must be well scrutinized to afford a 
fuller knowledge of the inheritance and possibilities that 
may have been imparted to the descendant. Grandsires 
and grandams must be measured by the same standards 
as were set up for the first parents, namely, character of 
offspring, individual merit, and ancestry. Here there 
will always be opportunity to learn what has been 
achieved under actual breeding test and this considera- 
tion will outweigh the other two. It is necessary, though, 
to be assured that grandsire or grandam, as the case may 



PEDIGREES OF BREEDING ANIMALS 101 

be, has transmitted the good features, and if undesir- 
able ones do exist, that they have been counteracted in 
the selection of mates and are at least less prominent in 
the succeeding generation. The third section of our stand- 
ard carries us into another generation and the question 
naturally arises as to how far we must carry this study. 
It is altogether reasonable to place greatest emphasis on 
the more recent progenitors and correspondingly less on 
those more remote. The study of pedigree is an effort 
to understand through an examination of its various 
sources the nature of the accumulated hereditary material. 
The further back we can trace the course of its flow and 
the more exhaustive our scrutiny of the various tribu- 
taries or sources of supply, the more dependable and com- 
plete is our information. A long line of ancestors with 
records of having produced the minimum of inferiority 
and of having continued to produce uniformly in accord- 
ance with their own type is the strongest possible and 
only conclusive proof that the hereditary material has 
been fully purged from all impurities by careful selec- 
tion exercised by the breeders of those former genera- 
tions in their elimination of all ancestors exhibiting or 
producing undesirable qualities. 

A breeder is likely to meet with two other types of 
pedigrees, one in which the first three or four generations 
show animals of merit as indi- 
Near and Remote viduals and as breeders but in which 
Ancestors. the back lines show few familiar 

names and represent obscurity if not 
inferiority. The other kind of breeding is more com- 
mon, that in which the fourth and more remote lines 



102 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

show many animals of fairly earned distinction but in 
which the nearer generations have not come to fame and 
seem to rely more on their descent than on themselves 
or their performances. Either one of such pedigrees must 
be considered much less valuable than one in which all 
lines are of proved superiority, but of the two, the one 
with obscurity surrounding near relations is inferior to 
the one with distinction in close lines and obscurity in re- 
mote lines. The esteem in which this latter style of pedi- 
gree is sometimes held has prompted some well mean- 
ing writers to decry as a snare and a delusion the whole 
matter of pedigree. Certainly in its abuse it does pre- 
sent an insidious danger which has brought loss and 
disappointment to many. Z in the tabulation shown in 
Fig. 9 typifies the kind of breeding under discussion. 

A may be taken to represent a sire of earned popu- 
larity and of whose sons A 4th proves to be able to 
beget stock of more than ordinary merit. This fact when 
properly advertised by his owner, creates a strong de- 
mand for his offspring. In the haste and eagerness to 
secure such stock, individual merit of the purchases is 
ignored, or else it is hoped that the offspring of A 13th 
will resemble A 4th rather than their own sire. At other 
times it is expected that the continued popularity of the 
strain will continue to unduly attach itself to the de- 
scendants and enable them to sell in spite of their defects. 
In the desire to profit by the popularity of A 4th his 
owner may mate him to inferior females and retain such 
offspring, of which A 13th may be one, that show plainly 
that they inherit more deeply of the defects than of the 
excellencies of their sire, or they may show that the fe- 



PEDIGREES OF BREEDING ANIMALS 



103 



male Q was not well adapted to mating with A 4th. The 
same blind adherence to U, an inferior descendant of the 
really meritorious B 3rd, gives X a double infusion of the 
inheritance from what should have been the rejected off- 
spring and misrepresentatives of really good breeding in- 
dividuals. Confidence placed in Z solely because of his 



FIG. 9— TABULATION SHOWING RELATION TO A DISTINGUISHED 
ANCESTOR. 



fA 13th. 



.U, 



rv 



w. 



A 4th. 



B 6th. 



R.. 




P 5th. 



■e 



JB 3d 
•[G 

■{' 
■{: 
H 

'In 



kinship to A and B 3rd ignores the fact that less than 
one-quarter of his inheritance comes from these tw^o ani- 
mals while the remainder is from others inferior by in- 
heritance. While it must be admitted that such as Z will 
often find buyers, and it might be possible to justify 
traffic in the kind because others erroneously overrate 
them, yet the probabilities of his transmitting the charac- 



104 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

teristics; of his few distant ancestors of note are too triv- 
ial to, justify regarding his use as other than a random 
experiment. Real or pretended faith in the value of such 
a pedigree represents the abuse rather than the use of a 
study of the ancestry and is damaging because it ignores 
the absolute necessity of first applying the tests to the 
members of the nearer generations. The appearance of 
the name of the most distinguished animal in the fourth 
or fifth line signifies very little. Earned popularity as a 
sire attaches to sons and grandsons, the inferior as well 
as the better ones being sought for by less discriminating 
buyers. All the sires in use in any breed at a given time 
trace to a surprisingly small number of predecessors. 
Consequently almost any animal will trace once to a well 
known individual, and if the attention is allowed to centre 
mainly on the remote lines practically all animals will be 
found able to boast of distinguished ancestors in common. 
"A worthy son of a worthy sire" expresses the principle 
that cannot safely be lost sight of. 

Unusual performance under test or extraordinary 
sho wring success often causes a very eager demand for 
the offspring of the animal so elevated, or for others so 
nearly related as to have promise of producing similar 
excellence. Such a strain or family then becomes fash- 
ionable and rightly so, because the fashion proceeds from 
incontrovertible merit. It is only when there is an in- 
discriminate acceptance of unworthy representatives of 
worthy families that the fashion becomes a blind craze, 
with the deteriorating influences referred to in the pre- 
ceding paragraphs. The reference to fashion at this time, 
however, is made for the purpose of introducing the mat- 



PEDIGREES OF BREEDING ANIMALS 105 

ter of family names. It is the custom, particularly in 
some breeds of cattle, to lay stress 
Fashion and on family names. It is argued that 
Family N antes. among so many herds and varied 
strains of breeding there is need 
of such names as shall furnish some information regard- 
ing the line of descent. In the human family names are 
usually preserved through the male line. A person bear- 
ing the name of Smith may have scores of ancestors of 
other names and nationalities for one of the Smith fam- 
ily, and it is but rarely that different families of the same 
name have much more than the name in common unless 
they are otherwise akin. Nevertheless, the use of the 
name is a necessity whether or not it is any sug- 
gestion of family characteristics. The claim is made that 
a similar system is desirable for use among animals and 
since the name of the sire attaches to so many individuals 
the name of the dam is used instead. The right of use of 
any particular name is accorded only to those whose an- 
cestry traces exclusively through females to the foundress 
of the family. 

It seems likely that family names came into use 
more through incidental causes than as a designed com- 
pliance with an actual need. When the breeds were be- 
ing formed and when a very few herds included all the bet- 
ter stock some females were especial favorites with their 
owners because of their excellence as breeders. It was 
much more definite to refer to a calf as a son or grand- 
son of the cow Duchess than to designate Him as the off- 
spring of a sire whose get included a large number of in- 
dividuals of various maternal ancestries. Certain females 



106 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

transmitted particular and valuable qualities and it nat- 
urally became advantag-eous to own animals closely re- 
lated to such foundresses of families. While a son might 
be equally as valuable as a daughter for perpetuating 
those qualities it was to the advantage of the owners to 
apply the family name only to descendants through the 
female line. It was thereby practicable for them to retain 
in their own herds as many as they chose of such descend- 
ants, while the males leaving the herd would share the 
prestige of the family but could not add to the numbers 
of those entitled to the family name. At the time re- 
ferred to herd books were not established and no printed 
pedigrees were available, so statement of membership in 
a particular family w-as useful even if only partial in- 
formation regarding breeding. 

In America it is customary to recognize imported fe- 
males as originators of family names. So long as the de- 
scendants exhibit the characteristics that popularized their 
family name they are rightfully entitled to any preference 
iittaching thereto, but w-hen it amounts to the blind or 
unintelligent scramble for the discards of those families 
and becomes purely a matter of name, only injury can 
result. The animal Z in the tabulation of page 103 is a 
member of the P family, even should another female ap- 
pear a half dozen times in the same line, because the fe- 
male descent is unbroken only to P. On the other hand, 
light esteem or prejudice is sometimes attached to de- 
scendants of females blacklisted by owners of contempo- 
raneous stock, or by an unfounded suspicion, in spite of 
the fact that the animal regarding which the question is 
raised cannot at most derive i per cent of its inheritance 



PEDIGREES OF BREEDING ANIMALS 107 

from the defamed progenitor. That family names are 
not a real necessity is made clear by the continued ad- 
vance made by most of the breeds in which no preference 
attaches to direct descent from one matron over that ac- 
corded to the same possibility of influence through inter- 
vening male ancestors. In such breeds as retain the cus- 
tom it is not the rule for the animal's recorded name to 
contain any part of the family name and it seems entirely 
probable that use of family names will soon be altogether 
abandoned. With officially recorded names and numbers 
for each animal and easily obtained complete pedigrees 
the need of indicating descent in a name no longer ex- 
ists, though it is a useful practice to give immediate off- 
spring of a well known male or female such names as 
will suggest their parentage. 

The matter of judging pedigree, like that of judging 
the animals themselves, is much more simple in theory 

than in practice. Even were it pos- 

Signiiicance of sible to obtain all desired informa- 

Breeders' Names, tion regarding a pedigree, there is 

no possible form of expressing in 
abstract terms the measure of its value, but to one who 
has a wide and impartial knowledge of recent and cur- 
rent happenings it is quite an easy matter to arrive at a 
safe opinion of the total value of the ancestry of any ani- 
mal as presented in a well written pedigree. But it is in 
securing such information as is sure to be desired that 
one of the practical difficulties arises. Applying the 
triple test of character of progeny, individual merit, and 
breeding, to each ancestor appearing in the tabulated 
form, it may often happen that some ancestor near 



108 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

enough to be of importance will be unknown except for 
the name of its breeder. Impressions of outstanding- in- 
dividuals, and of many less notable but more familiar, 
are easily retained. A practical way of supplementing 
such knowledge is by studying the breeders. 

Any breeding enterprise, sooner or later, will have a 
rating in public esteem in accordance with the soundness 
of the principles actually adhered to by the breeder. One 
may know nothing of a particular animal, but if he learns 
that it was reared by a man who is known as having al- 
w-ays exercised the most careful discrimination in the se- 
lection of sires and the culling of females he will be 
assured that there is at least a preponderance of inherit- 
ance for good. If it is known that the third, fourth, and 
successive dams were bred by the same breeder wdiose 
achievements had brought him the esteem of his contem- 
poraries and who would not retain an inferior female in 
his herd, then the standing of the herd attaches to its de- 
scendant. In such a case the breeder's methods are a 
guarantee that none but good sires were used, but if in 
addition wt learn that those sires were from other herds 
of the best repute then there is good reason for placing 
a high valuation on an animal of such descent even 
though the particulars regarding the ancestors are very 
meagre. The custom of naming animals so as to include 
the name of the breeder or of his farm is a very great 
help in this connection, though it must be observed that 
it is quite common to continue to give such names to the 
descendants of such animals bred by other parties who 
do not exercise equally careful selection. It is not im- 
possible that a third or fourth sire or dam valued for 



PEDIGREES OF BREEDING ANIMALS 109 

reasons just discussed was discarded for failure to repre- 
sent the type and features sought for by the breeder. If 
direct evidence as to individual merit of such is not at 
hand it will be necessary again to place dependence upon 
the standing of the breeder who owned the animal at the 
time the offspring concerned was bred. In the absence 
of direct information the most conservative procedure 
will make the standing of the breeders the main part of 
the basis of opinion of the value of more distant an- 
cestors. 

While it may not be easy to gain full acquaintance 
with the past, the study of current events in shows and 
sales is a very interesting and profitable investment of 
time. Generations of animals come and go very quickly 
and a man conversant with one or two seasons' affairs 
soon finds the subjects of his study appearing in the 
fourth and fifth lines of pedigrees and his knowledge 
ample for the nearer and more important ancestors. The 
association with men whose knowledge antedates one's 
own is a most useful means of studying breed history. 

In a few rare instances breeders have been known 
to represent an animal as being the offspring of a parent 

much superior to the actual one. 

Correctness of With the magnitude and character 

Pedigrees. of the business no possible means 

can be employed to verify the rep- 
resentations of breeders in these matters. No more rep- 
rehensible form of dishonesty can be conceived than that 
v/hich would cause a breeder to stake his judgment and 
the value of even a single crop of young stock upon an 
animal whose descent is not as represented. Careless- 



no 



BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 



ness in keeping of records may lead to unintentional 
errors, but the proportion of thoroughly careful and re- 
liable breeders is so great that there is no necessity for 
dealing with any party who allows any question to exist 
regarding the honesty or correctness of his representa- 
tions. The following pedigree score card suggests the 
relative importance of near and remote ancestors and 
the basis of estimating their influence : 



Record for uni- 
formly siring 
good stock. ... 12 

Individuality ... 12 



Record as a pro- 
ducer of good 
■stock 10 

Individuality . . .14 



Similarity in type 
of sire and dam 4 



Record as a 
Individuality 



{Record as a sire 
Individuality 
Ancestry 
Record as a producer. 
Individuality 
Ancestry 



Record as a 
ducer of 



pro- 
good 



stock 3 



Individuality 



rRecord as a sire 

\ Individuality 

j Ancestry 

) Record as a producer. 



/ Individuality 
^Ancestry 



{Record as a sire 
Individuality 
^^cestry 
Record as a producer. 
Individuality 
Ancestry 



Record as a pro- 
ducer of good 

stock 

, Individuality . . . 



'Record as a sire. 
Individuality .. . . 
Ancestry 



Record as a producer. 

Individuality 

^Ancestry 



+ 



24 



+ 



24=100 



CHAPTER XL 

THE OFFSPRING DURING GESTATION. 

The successive stages of development from a ferti- 
lized ovum to a fully formed body occur with striking 
regularity and uniformity. These changes, however, are 
of more immediate interest to the embryologist than to 
the practical student of heredity. But even the latter 
should not lose sight of the significance of one of the 
stages which was referred to in Chapter VI, the separa- 
tion of an amount of the germ plasm or hereditary ma- 
terial to be preserved in the ovaries or testicles as the 
case may be, for the production of the germ cells of the 
succeeding generation. This idea renders more easy the 
appreciation of the importance of good ancestry. 

It is known that in most animals some days elapse 
before the fertilized ovum becomes attached to the uterus 
to be sustained from the blood cir- 
Relation of culation of the dam. During the 

Foetus to Dam. interval the changes that occur are 
supported by the considerable 
amount of food material carried by the ovum or egg-cell. 
It was noticed in Chapter IV that there is a natural tend- 
ency to suppose that the very intimate contact existing 
between the foetus and the dam through such a long 
period of time affords her extraordinary opportunity to 

(111) 



112 



BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 




FIG. 10.— FOETAL CALF WITHIN ITS MEMBRANES.— Laws, "Diseases of Cat- 
tle," Bureau of Animal Industry, United States Department of Agriculture. 



THE OFFSPRING DURING GESTATION 



113 



- 






\ 


^E 


W^ , -■'! 




^^^,^y 




FIG. 11.— PREGNANT UTERUS WITH COTYLEDONS, AND A MATERNAL 
COTYLEDON, B. B., ATTACHING THE ENVELOPING MEMBRANE OF 
FETUS, E, TO UTERUS, A.— Laws, "Diseases of Cattle," Bureau of Animal 
Industry, United States Department of Agriculture, 



114 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

imbue the young with her own quahties to the exclusion 
of those of the sire. The indisputable facts concerning 
the physical basis of heredity show clearly that no matter 
how plausible such an idea may seem it is entirely errone- 
ous. This in no way detracts from the importance of ma- 
ternal vigor and good care and feeding to render certain 
that there shall be present in the circulation of the dam 
all those elements requisite to the maximum growth of 
the foetus. The attachment of the embryo to the uterus 
is entirely analogous to the rooting of the germinated 
seed ; after that point everything is conditional upon food 
supply. The good seed contains unusual possibilities, but 
is helpless and useless in the absence of the material with 
which to build to the plan it contains. 

Numerous instances have been cited to substantiate 

the claim that certain conditions may so impress the dam 

at the time of conception or during 

Eifect Upon pregnancy as to cause representa- 
Foetus of Ma- tive conditions in the offspring. 
ternal Impressions. The writer has known of a Gallo- 
way cow that dropped an off-col- 
ored calf. The owner with apparent seriousness at- 
tributed the occurrence to the fact that before the cow 
w^as bred the herdsman had allowed the bull to serve a 
neighbor's family cow the color of w^hich was conveyed 
to the calf in question. It is unusual to claim such trans- 
mission through the sire, but credence is too often given 
to the possibility of such influence through the dam. It 
is related that the celebrated Angus breeder, McCombie, 
attributed some of his success in ridding his herd of the 
tendency to throw white spots and off-colors to his hav- 



THE OFFSPRING DURING GESTATION 115 

ing painted all his barns and fences in a solid black color 
so as to impress his breeding animals. 

That impressions upon the mind of the pregnant 
mother are reflected in the offspring is completely impos- 
sible of explanation on a physiological basis. It is true 
we are very unfamiliar with the nervous system, but to 
suppose that even violent mental impressions could orig- 
inate a substance that would so derange inheritance as 
to produce a serious change in one organ or part while 
others are not affected would be going very far to ex- 
plain even undisputed facts. It is also well to bear in 
mind that the circulation of the dam does not pass di- 
rectly through the foetus, but that the latter has its own 
system of circulation which is replenished by filtration 
through the numerous cotyledons that connect the inner 
maternal and the outer foetal membranes. 

That a mental impression could set up an action that 
would be conveyed to a specific part of the foetus is un- 
thinkable. There doubtless have been cases where ani- 
mals were born with some deformity or malformation 
corresponding to a condition that impressed the dam dur- 
ing pregnancy. But such cases are so very rare as to 
compel us to class them as coincidences. For every such 
case that can be cited, there are thousands of others in 
which the same or equally likely influences were exerted 
with no result. If it were true that visual impressions 
could be conveyed to the offspring, breeding would be 
chaos. Colts would have the color of the cattle or swine, 
the calves conceived in summer would be of a green 
color and those of winter would reflect the varied hues 
of the surroundings of the yards and the interior of the 



116 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

stables. Speculation and discussion in regard to these 
very rare coincidences diverts attention from the tangible 
basis of heredity which alone yields suggestions that can 
safely be carried into practice. 

The embryo must not, however, be regarded as un- 
susceptible to the effects of the mother's condition. Al- 
though maternal impressions can- 
Nced of Care in not be directly conveyed to a spe- 

Management. cific part or organ of the foetus, re- 
gard must be had for the fact that 
severe nervous disturbance occasioned by fright or anger 
may interfere with nutrition. Authenticated cases give 
best of grounds for believing that anger may so derange 
the nerves and the organs they control as to cause an ab- 
normal and injurious condition of the milk. Since milk 
is a blood product it is reasonable to suppose that the 
same malnutrition may also extend to a foetus in the 
uterus and cause a partial or complete interruption of 
nutrition of the foetus and death or expulsion or both. 
Sucli possibilities suggest the general precautions against 
allowing infoal mares to be in sight of blood, and against 
the feeding of damaged feed to any stock carrying 
young. Strange and mysterious marks and conditions 
may also be the result of the displacement of the foetus 
and pressure or entanglement of parts in the cords in 
such a way as to cut off the circulation to the part. Such 
conditions suggest the protection of the dams from un- 
due exertion and rough treatment which may also cause 
abortion or the death of the young. 

While it is true that no regard need be had for direct 
influence of maternal impressions and that reasonable 



THE OFFSPRING DURING GESTATION 117 

treatment will preclude accidental abortion, still the time 
of gestation affords important op- 
Niitrition of portunities to second the efforts put 
Offspring. forth in selection. Reproduction is 

a normal function, and only normal 
treatment of the parents is necessary to insure its suc- 
cessful accomplishment. While as with plants improper 
or insufficient nutrition may not produce specific effects, 
at the same time the foetus can complete no devel- 
opment for which the material to build with is not 
forthcoming from the dam's circulation. The hereditary 
material represents the ability and powers of architects, 
but the most expert architect is just as helpless without 
necessary materials as is the man surrounded by material 
but without masons or carpenters. 

The securing of maximum development before birth 
has a very important relation to the outcome of any 
mating. The necessity of liberal feeding of the mother 
to insure a plentiful supply of milk is easily recognized, 
but the beginning of suckling, while it is a vital transi- 
tion to the offspring, for the dam marks only a changed 
method of nursing. The nourishment of the offspring 
prior to birth may have just as strong an influence upon 
its final development as that furnished after it enters 
upon a separate existence. Any meagerness of the feed- 
ing during pre-natal days impairs and restricts the de- 
velopment of all the organs. Under favorable circum- 
stances such under-development may be overcome by 
careful feeding after birth, but such procedure consumes 
time that might have been utilized in making progress 
toward maturity and never can fully compensate for cur- 



118 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

tailment at the more opportune time. Though prema- 
turely born animals that are exceptionally well tended 
sometimes mature well, cases are not infrequently met 
with in which lack of vitality and many serious forms of 
weakness are traceable to under-development at birth. 

The support of the growth of the foetus through the 
feeding of the dam must be considered as being accom- 
plished only after the demands for 
Feeding her own sustenance and whatever 

the Dam. may be exacted in the way of milk 

or labor have been satisfied. Nor 
is a fat condition of a pregnant female evidence that the 
feeding is judicious. The fat producing feeds are not 
what is chiefly required by the growing young. The in- 
crease consists mainly of bone, muscle and body tissue, 
and must be furnished in the dam's ration. Liberal sup- 
plies of unwisely selected feeds are not of themselves a 
guarantee of the most desirable results. Unhealthy 
stabling, poor ventilation or restricted exercise may pre- 
clude the most healthy and efficient condition of the dam 
and thus hinder the young from accomplishing what was 
made possible in planning its inheritance. 

The bovine embryo at the end of the third month 
has a length of about 5}^ inches. At the end of the 
fourth month the length is in the 
Grozvth of vicinity of 10 inches and the weight 

Bovine Foetus, ^Yi pounds. Up to this point the 
tax upon the dam has not been se- 
vere and might be supported while she devoted consider- 
able of the food products to labor, milk and growth. 
During the fifth month length and weight both increase 



THE OFFSPRING DURING GESTATION 119 

by about 50 per cent. It can readily be seen, then, that 
in the case of a calf weighing 80 pounds at birth there 
is an increase in weight of over 70 pounds during the last 
four months. This weight consists nearly altogether of 
l)one, muscle, and other tissue. It represents a gain 
through growth of over half a pound daily, that must be 
supported from the dam's feed. If her ration is lacking 
in the required elements the young must most certainly 
suffer. If she is so fed and handled as to continue a 
heavy milk flow that demand is not unlikely to be sup- 
plied at the expense of the foetus. If her growth is in- 
complete, and the ration not liberal enough to meet the 
needs of two individuals, one and probably both will 
suffer. One very successful breeder and exhibitor with 
whom the writer was acquainted stated that his best 
calves in a surprisingly large proportion of cases were 
from cows that had missed breeding the previous year. 
This breeder considered that the rest permitted the cow 
to be in the best possible condition to nourish her young 
both before and after its birth. Reasonable exercise at 
liberty or at work may promote the growth of a foal 
through the general health of the mare, but severe labor 
or even modest labor, when only fat producing foods are 
fed, can be exacted only by sacrificing in some measure 
the natural vigor needed by a well bred animal. 

Before proceeding to a consid- 
Influence of a Pre- eration of the interests of the off- 
vious IjHpregnation. spring one other topic may be treat- 
ed. Along with wonderful tales of 
the effects of maternal impressions there are recorded in- 
stances which are taken to show the residual influence of 



120 liREEUlNG FARM ANIMALS 

a sire upon other later offspring produced by the female 
to the service of a different male. This is designated as 
telegony, or the influence of a previous impregnation. 
Belief in such a supposed phenomenon is illustrated in 
the idea that a mare raising a mule colt, though mated 
with a male of her own kind the following year, will pro- 
duce a foal exhibiting characteristics of the ass. The 
majority of breeders have no regard whatever for any 
possible influence of earlier sires because their experience 
and observations do not so suggest. It used to be 
claimed that telegony was operative in dog breeding, but 
the number of dog breeders who believe in it is rapidly 
decreasing. Supposed occurrences in this class of stock 
can be explained on other grounds. There is no satis- 
factory physiological explanation of telegony. The facts 
do not suggest that such a thing exists ; it merits no prac- 
tical or speculative consideration by breeders. 



CHAPTER XII. 
DEVELOPMENT OF YOUNG STOCK. 

An animal's inheritance is complete at the instant of 

conception. Even^thing he is to be by virtue of his 

parentage and ancestry is already 

What Constitutes implanted. His food, protection 

Environincnt. or lack of it, training, and every- 
thing connected with his subse- 
quent life make up what is spoken of as environment. 
Many warm and earnest debates have been occasioned by 
differences in opinion regarding the relative importance 
of heredity and environment and the transmission of the 
effects of environment. 

The stock-raiser's interest in environment is in two 
phases : first, its relation to the individual animal, and 
second, its effect on the offspring of that individual. 
The second concerns only the raiser of stock to be used 
for breeding purposes, while the possible influence of en- 
vironment upon the individual is of immediate interest 
to every stock owner. 

The practical relation of environment to heredity in 
the development of the individuals will be considered 
first. It is a common remark that the influence of en- 
vironment upon farm animals is a deteriorating one ; that 
environment is more powerful than heredity because 

(121) 



122 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

when extra care and feed are withheld from the young 
the development that characterized the parents is not 
secured. In the same line of reasoning heredity is held 
to be secondary to environment because seeming low- 
bred animals reach unusual development under favorable 
opportunities, and the "corn crib cross" is advised as a 
chief factor in improvement. 

No good can come from debating the values of hered- 
ity and environment, since each is essential, and any lack 

^ T r> 7 r ^1"^ one will curtail the possibilities 

Improved Stock for . .^ .i t i • 

_ ^ ■' of the other, inheritance is mam- 

Im proved ^ ^^ , .,.,.. ^, 

. ly a matter of possibilities, ihe 

hnviromnent. < , . , , , , 

advantage of the good pure-bred 

over the scrub is chiefly in his greater possibilities. Of 

course he exhibits the color and external features of his 

breed, and the peculiar conformation, but any advantage 

through ability to derive a greater amount of nutriment 

from a given amount of feed is at best very slight. The 

chief distinction lies in the fact that the pure-bred, under 

the direction of his inherent nature, constructs from his 

feed a body of greater value, and in the additional fact 

that he can consume a greater amount of feed. The 

power of greater consumption is a decided advantage 

even though the degree of efficiency of digestion be the 

same as in the scrub. A very considerable part of what 

r.n animal can consume is required for maintenance and 

only that amount of food digested in excess of needs of 

maintenance can be used for gain. Consequently the 

one that consumes the most can devote a larger total 

amount to purposes of increase, complete his growth 

more quickly and effect an economy equal to the cost of 



DEiVELOPMENT OF YOUNG STOCK 123 

maintenance during the extra time required by the scrub. 
Under a system of low feeding and poor care, the natural 
environment under which the scrub's ancestors were 
reared, the improved animal has no opportunity to 
utilize his inheritance and makes an indifferent showing 
against his rival that is in his own habitat. Improved 
environment is an imperative adjunct to improved breed- 
ing. Under judicious artificial care and feeding, the 
artificial environment that surrounded the ancestors of 
the good pure-bred, opportunity is offered for utilizing 
inherent possibilities and the result is markedly in favor 
of the improved individual. 

The scrub is the outcome of natural selection to an- 
swer requirements of natural environment, and if stock 
is desired for the purpose of withstanding the adversities 
of poor feeding and treatment, the scrub will admirably 
fill the bill. Our breeds of improved stock have been 
evolved by artificial selection to meet the needs of the 
artificial methods of rearing and 
Feeding Must use obtaining in all advanced agri- 
Support Breeding, cultural sections. Their superior- 
ity cannot assert itself in the ab- 
sence of the accustomed environment, and when we 
assume the presence of natural conditions or a low order 
of care then environment does assuredly tend to pull 
down or hinder the assertion of what artificial selection 
has built into heredity. To secure maximum returns 
from well bred animals the feeding and all features of 
environment must be made as favorable as possible to 
allow the exercise of the potentialities that have been 
intensified through generations of careful selection. The 



124 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

well bred animal is the only economical instrument for 
the person who wishes to realize upon his ability to feed 
skillfully and intelligently and care for domestic ani- 
mals. Though feed is not the only factor of environ- 
ment that must be considered in this connection, it is a 
principal one and many really meritorious animals prove 
a disappointment or fail to properly repay their owners 
because they were expected to perform the impossible 
and make bricks without straw. Perhaps this injustice 
is most commonly worked by under feeding, but the 
wrong kinds of feed are sometimes employed. Housing 
and exercise are important parts of environment, being 
allied to feeding in the same sense that they have much 
to do with nutrition and continued efficiency of digestion 
and the maintenance of health. On the whole probably 
more of our registered breeding stock is injured by too 
close housing than by exposure. 

It is also imperative that this opportunity to develop 
be accorded the progeny of carefully selected parents 

during their growing days. It is 

Feeding While very easy to allow a scarcity of the 

Young. right kind of feed to continue too 

long, or to be deluded by the fact 
that an excess of fattening foods is filling the require- 
ments because the animal is in an attractively fat condi- 
tion. Often before it is realized, the days in which 
growth is possible have passed and a reliable knowledge 
of what was the animal's inheritance is impossible be- 
cause no test was made of his capacities to respond to the 
demands which the builders of the ancestry sought to 
serve. In the future, much more than in the past, buyers 



DEVELOPMENT OF YOUNG STOCK 125 

of breeding animals of the meat-making breeds will want 
tangible evidence of the feeding qualities of their pur- 
chases such as can only be furnished by a record of feed 
eaten and gains made. Unusual prices of feeds required 
for growth sometimes justify a less rapid development 
than might be desirable, but generous feeding has the 
practical advantage of putting such indivduals as are to 
be discarded into their most attractive condition while 
still retaining the bloom of youth so that they can be dis- 
posed of to the best advantage. Referring again to the 
''corn crib cross," while it is an essential adjunct to 
heredity and enables the animal fully to utilize its inheri- 
tance in yielding maximum returns, it cannot originate 
any character or implant anything not represented in the 
inheritance. It must be relied upon as the material for 
the structure, the plan of which was drafted by the par- 
ents. It is only when an animal has been given a good 
chance to develop what it is supposed to have inherited 
that its value as a breeder, if a young animal, can be 
fairly estimated. 

Of course there must always be considerable com- 
merce in undeveloped and untested animals that are ap- 
praised upon the insight and experienced judgment of 
the buyers and sellers, but where much depends on an 
estimate of individual merit, as in selection of sires or 
additions to a breeding herd, a fair test must be regarded 
as superior to the best judgment. 

To summarize the discussion of this factor in its rela- 
tion to the individual, it may then be stated that economy 
of production suggests the furnishing of that environ- 
ment most favorable to the development of those char- 



126 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

acteristics the animal is believed to have inherited. If 
difficulties may arise in so doing, then the best possible 
environment should govern the selection of the breed in 
order that heredity and environment may assist rather 
than combat each other. 

It is as an aid to selection that environment is of 
greatest importance. Selection is based in large part on 
individuality and unless the envi- 
Good Care Aids ronment permits the exercise of the 
Selection. inheritance, estimates of merit will 

be less trustworthy than is possible. 
Then some inferior animals will be preserved and some 
superior ones discarded, and unsuitable environment will 
drag down instead of build up. It not infrequently 
occurs that offspring or descendants of animals of note 
are used as breeders without even having had a chance to 
come into a high state of development. In such cases 
the sole reliance is placed on the pedigree, and though it 
may be worthy of such entire faith at times, at other 
times it preserves what should have been rejected, thus 
misrepresenting the family and disappointing the owners. 
The relation of environment to heredity in the devel- 
opment of individuality seems clear. The relation of 
environment to breeding powers is 
Transmission of more difficult of understanding. 
Effects of Breeders sometimes state that this 

Environment. or that animal never had a chance 
to develop rightly, "but he is well 
bred and he will breed right." The likelihood of the 
transmission of the effects of environment is the question 
that has occasioned more debate and divisions among 



DEVELOPMENT OF YOUNG STOCK 127 

men of science tfian has any other topic. Among biolo- 
gists this question is designated, 'The transmission of 
acquired characters." Just what constitutes an acquired 
character is hard to state, and much of the debate has 
been occasioned by a lack of agreement in the premises. 
The word ''acquired" is used as opposed to "inherited," 
and anything acquired must therefore be the result of 
environment. It has been asserted that in the strict sense 
there can be no such thing as an acquired character be- 
cause the most environment can possibly accomplish is 
the development of something of which the beginning is 
already present.* However, from the viewpoint of a 
practical stockman we will not miss the real value of the 
matter if w^e consider the transmission of development 
acquired as a result of environment. 

Does the liberal feeding of the parents render their 
offspring any more responsive to good treatment than 
they would otherwise have been? Are the offspring of 
raced horses possessed of greater ability in the speed line 
than they would be if their parents were not raced? The 
supposed inheritance of the ability to perform certain 
tricks and to display certain habits are often introduced 
into this discussion but do not vary the principle of the 
cases here referred to. The transmission of congenital 
deformities and oddities are also offered as evidence in 
this connection, but must clearly be rejected because they 
have no relation to environment. In short, the matter 
resolves itself into the question. Does the hereditary ma- 
terial reflect the influence of the surroundings of the 
parents ? 

*Davenport, "Principles of Breeding," p. 358. 



128 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

If we consider that all animal improvement has been 

effected under highly artificial environments, we can 

easily subscribe to the idea that the 

Biolocrists on effect of environment is transmit- 
Transuiitted ted. It is when the attempt is 

Development. made to give a physiological ex- 
planation of the occurrence that 
skepticism arises. According to the idea, which seems 
to be the best extant, that heredity is conveyed by tangi- 
ble chromatin material retained in the reproductive 
organs, it is impossible to conceive of the actual incor- 
poration within the chromatin of any substance represent- 
ing the effects of special feeding, exercise, or education. 
Although biologists are still divided as to the transmis- 
sion of acquired characters, they all regard chromatin as 
the chief if not sole vehicle of heredity. They therefore 
refer every matter to selection and seek to explain ap- 
parent transmissions of acquired characters or develop- 
ment on that basis. Not every instance can be satisfac- 
torily explained by that means, but on the other hand no 
evidence is forthcoming to fully substantiate the other 
view. As a consequence a majority of the biologists, 
when pressed to give their verdict in the matter, have 
recourse to the Scottish jurors' ''not proven." 

Although comparatively few scientists approach prob- 
lems of heredity to study their relation to stock-breeding 
practices, yet the breeders will find that the opinions of 
those less practical men are the most useful for explain- 
ing the best of what has been and is being accomplished 
in animal breeding. The denial of transmission of ac- 
quired development and the explanation of the effect of 



DEVELOPMENT OF YOUNG STOCK 129 

environment solely through selection may doubtless seem 
an extremely rigid adherence to the sufficiency of selec- 
tion. This course is the only one open, however, to him 
who would put heredity on a tangible, truly scientific 
basis. To ignore or belittle selection is to ascribe results 
to the working of unknown forces and to continue an 
atmosphere of mystery around heredity that certainly 
can not achieve any advance in science or in practice. 

It will be seen, however, that whether or not we 
believe in transmission of acquired development, there is 

no occasion to place a lower esti- 

Acquired mate upon good environment as 

Development in related to improvement. The prin- 

Trotters. cipal issue can be most satisfactorily 

discussed as it relates to trotting 
horses. With them there is no question about the acquir- 
ing of an unusual development, and whatever may be 
said will also apply in consideration of other effects of 
environment in other animals. The most plausible 
presentation of claimed facts presented of late years in 
support of the idea of the inheritance of acquired develop- 
ment is contained in the articles published by C. L. Red- 
field, based on his study of trotting horse breeding. He 
says :* 

'The theory relates to the inheritance by offspring 
of the characteristics acquired by parents. I have pointed 
out that the characters which an animal acquires are those 
which he develops by exercising them, and consequently 
that an acquired character does not mean the acquirement 
of a new character, but the development of a character 
already in existence. I have, therefore, substituted for 

*"Horse World," Feb. 27, 1906. 



130 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

'acquired character' the term 'acquired development.' I 
have also pointed out that a development acquired by 
exercise is in its nature dynamic, hence I have used the 
term 'dynamic development.' 

"The next step was that if the dynamic development 
acquired by the parent is inherited by the offspring, 
then the amount of such should be proportional to the 
amount of the acquirement. This simply means that if 
the child is to inherit the dynamic development which 
the parent acquires, then the parent should acquire the 
development before he begets the child. Or to state the 
matter in another way, the child cannot inherit anything 
which the parent acquires after the child is born. 

"I then pointed out that dynamic development is 
acquired by exercise, and as active animals continue to 
exercise during their whole lives, therefore, old and act- 
ive animals have acquired more dynamic development 
than have young or inactive ones. In other words, I 
argued that the amount of dynamic development w^hich 
an animal has acquired is a quantity to be determined by 
considering the age of the animal and the degree of its 
activity taken together. From this I drew the conclusion 
that if acquired dynamic development is transmitted from 
parent to offspring, then those animals which have, by 
natural inheritance, a fine dynamic quality must be de- 
scended from a line of progenitors which were either old 
or highly developed by special training. 

'T have said that I took i,ooo registered stallions 
alphabetically, from the Tndex Digest' of the 'Register'* 
and calculated the ages of sires at the time when these 
registered stallions were foaled. From these I deter- 
mined that the average time between generations in the 
male line was 10.43 years, which would give the average 
age of sires as 9.43 years at the time of service. I then 
said that, making all reasonable allowances for errors, 

*"The American Trotting- Register." 



DEVELOPMENT OF YOUNG STOCK 131 

the average time between generations in the male Hne 
might be set down as between lo and ii years, and that 
this period might be used as a standard in testing the age 
part of the theory. So far no one claims to have tested 
the accuracy of my calculation; no one claims that the 
figures I gave were wrong; and no one has said that 
these figures cannot properly be used as a standard ; yet 
if I am to be controverted, one of the first things to be 
done is to dispute the accuracy of my standard. 

"I then took the entire list of 2:10 trotters as an ap- 
propriate class of animals to be used in testing the inheri- 
tance of dynamic development, and 
Claimed Transmis- I calculated the ages of their male 
sion of Acquired progenitors for four generations. 
Development. The number of animals involved 
was over 5,000 and I gave the aver- 
age time between generations in the male line for the 
production of 2:10 trotters as being approximately 14 
years. This is an average of nearly 40 per cent over the 
standard average determined from the * Register,' and 
my explanation of this remarkable difference was that it 
indicated the inheritance of acquired dynamic develop- 
ment. So far no one has disputed the accuracy of my 
computation and no one has attempted to give any other 
explanation of such an unusual divergence from the nat- 
ural order of things. Am I right or am I wrong? If 
I am wrong will some one please come forward with a 
better explanation?" 

In the ''American Naturalist"* the author has made 
this reply to the foregoing : 

'Tt is noted that in the case of the average horses rep- 
resented by the first thousand in the 'Index Digest,' the 
ages of their immediate sires only were computed, and 
found to average 9.43 years; whereas in the case of the 

*Issue of January, 1909. 



132 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

horses in the 2.10 Hst all the sires appearing in the first 
four generations were brought in. Assuming 14 years 
to be correct for the average time between generations, 
this carries us back 56 years. 

'The first horse that was uniformly- successful as a 
sire of speed was Hambletonian 10, foaled in 1849. ^^ 
the sixties this horse's reputation as a sire of speed was 
established and he did heavy stud service until the time 
of his death in 1873. This was the real beginning of the 
trotting breed of horses. During the later years of the life 
of Hambletonian 10 and subsequent to his death his sons 
w^ere patronized by owners of well-bred and speedy mares. 
The more successful of these were retained in service. 
When the grandsons of Hambletonian 10, with two gen- 
erations of speed-producing sires back of them and out 
of selected female ancestry, came into service, it was 
found that in many instances they sired faster colts than 
did their sires or grandsire. Only in more recent years 
were representatives of popular families used for stud 
purposes in earlier life. 

'Tn view of these facts, I deem it unfair to base a 
conclusion upon a comparison of two results, one of 
which (13 years as the average age at time of service of 
sires in four generations back of horses in the 2 :io list) 
comes largely from an investigation of the formative 
period of the breed, while the other (9.43 years as the 
average age at the time of service of immediate sires of 
average horses) mainly refers to more recent conditions. 
If the figures 9.43 and 13 had been derived by similar 
means their value would be unquestionable. A really 
fair comparison would demand the same procedure in one 
case as in the other. Either all sires in the four genera- 
tions of the thousand horses should be used or else only 
the immediate sires of those in the 2:10 list. 

"Assuming 9.43 to be correct for the average age of 
the sires when they produced the first thousand horses 



DEVELOPMENT OF YOUNG STOCK 133 

in the 'Index Digest,' I have attempted to secure a similar 
figure for the immediate sires of the horses in the 2:10 
trotting hst as pubhshed in the 'Yearbook/ Vol. 22. The 
list published in that volume contained 279 horses. In 
thirty cases the records failed to show the horse's age. 
In seven cases the age of the sire is not given. This 
leaves 242 of the 279 horses whose ages are shown. 

"Below are given two extremes and the average for 
242 horses regarding which there exists no uncertainty : 

Age of 
Sire, Sire at time 
Horse. Foaled. Sire. foaled, of service. 

Wentworth, 2 :04i^ 1903 Superior 1879 23 

Dolly Dillon, 2 :06 1/2 1895 Sidney Dillon 1892 2 

Average for 242 horses 9.41 

Average age of sires of 2:10 horses given by Redfield 13 

Average age of sires of average horses 9.43 

Of the 242 horses, 1 was sired by a 2-year-old stallion. 
11 were " " 3 

17 " " " 4 " 

30 " " " 5 '' " 

19 " " " 6 " 

21 " " " 7 " 

21 " " " 8 " 

25 " " " 9 '. 

14 10 " 

17 " " " 11 " 

8 12 

13 " " ' 13 " 

8 ' 14 " •' 

9 « - « 15 .< 

6 " " " 16 " 

6 " " " 17 " 

1 was " " 18 " " " 
4 were " " 19 " " " 
3 " " " 20 " 

" " " 21 " 

6 " '• •' 22 " 

2 ' 23 " 

"Taking 9.43 years as the average age of the sires of 

average horses and substituting 13 by 9.41 years as the 

average age of the sires of 2:10 

Inheritance Not trotting horses, it is evident that 

Related the records do not reveal any su- 

to Sire's Age. periority of the old sire over the 

younger one." 
It seems quite possible and fully reasonable to account 
for the great accomplishment of breeders of American 



134 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

trotting horses without accepting the idea of transmission 
of acquired development. 

Most fast horses come from parents with speed be- 
cause our most astute breeders insist on actual perform- 
ance as a test of individual merit. 
Hoiv Development Sires without low marks are seldom 
Aids Selection. accorded the opportunity of choice 
mares until their get from mares 
bred to them earlier have demonstrated their pos- 
session of speed. In the natural order of things such 
a sire must be of considerable age before being used very 
freely and having many colts, and thus it might seem 
that age in the sire favors speed in his get. Whichever 
side of the question a breeder chooses to take his practice 
will not be seriously changed. In one case he will train 
his breeding stock as an aid to selection and discard the 
failures. In the other case the training will be calcu- 
lated to produce a result transmitted to the progeny. 
Those not responding to the training will be discarded 
just the same. 

The development of such a quality as early maturity 
or ease of fattening may likewise be regarded as not 
attributable to transmission of effects of environment. 
Such a character being desired, and environment ad- 
justed to develop it, those not showing it are eliminated 
while those with greatest aptitude in the desired direction 
are mated and the inheritance made greater in some of 
the offspring than it was in either parent. The same sort 
of testing and selection continued for several generations 
tends to render the inheritance pure to the desired char- 
acter. It would be out of line with the practices of mas- 



DEVELOPMENT OF YOUNG STOCK 135 

ter breeders as well as scientifically wrong to seek to 
develop and have transmitted any greater degree of 
merit in any feature than was inherited, but selection can, 
by mating two suitable animals, procure for their off- 
spring a more generous inheritance than was possessed 
by any individual of earlier existence. 

The light esteem placed upon the possibility of trans- 
mission of the effects of environment should not incline 
us to in any way lower our appre- 
Actital Role ciation of studied care and intelli- 

of Environment, gent liberal feeding of breeding 
stock. Whether we think of speed, 
easy fattening or natural fleshing qualities, we see that 
it was only under favorable environments that the mak- 
ers of the breeds and strains were enabled to select from 
their herds those animals that should be mated for the 
perpetuation and intensification of the features they 
sought to impress upon their stock. It is only by con- 
tinuing the same conditions that we can retain or im- 
prove those same features. Those conditions being with- 
drawn we are forced to rely entirely upon pedigree, 
which though of the best cannot safely be allowed to 
overbalance individuality, and good individuality necessi- 
tates full chance for development. 

It is only when improved animals are subjected to 
scrub conditions that the pull of environment is down- 
ward. The maintenance of a favorable environment in 
the feed particularly is therefore necessary in order to 
realize upon the good inheritance of the animals. It is 
again essential in the selection of the really best individ- 
uals from the young produced. If environment is prop- 



136 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

erly related to the purpose sought its pull is upward. 
To maintain our flocks and herds under an increasingly 
artificial environment and yet retain in them the vigor 
and freedom from difficulties of reproduction found in 
native stock is the duty that falls upon the breeders of 
today and their successors. 



CHAPTER XIII. 
DETERMINATION OF SEX. 

Probably no other one thing has occasioned so much 
speculation regarding the wonderful processes of repro- 
duction as has the desire to control sex. The power to 
do so w^ould be temporarily at least very profitable to 
breeders. Their general desire to have the increase of 
their herds consist mainly of males or females, accord- 
ing to which would be most profitable at the time, is 
responsible for a multiplicity of directions for ensuring 
the production of male or female at will. 

In the human race the sex of the foetus is distinguish- 
able at about the eighth week of pregnancy. It is not 
known whether the sex is determined when the sperma- 
tozoon enters the ovum or whether ensuing conditions 
are responsible for the development of male or female 
organs. The fact that sex is discernible only at the 
eighth week by no means indicates that it was previously 
undetermined. 

The commonest idea about sex determination is that 
females bred at the beginning of the period of heat pro- 
duce male offspring. Other no- 
Influence of tions are based on the same sup- 

Tiinc of Breeding, posed principle, namely, that an 
ovum fertilized while immature 
produces a male; maturity is supposed to be in propor- 

(137) 



138 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

tion to the age of the ovum and the nutritive condition 
of the dam. 

FertiHzation ordinarily occurs in the Fallopian tubes, 
the ovum descending from the ovaries when fully pre- 
pared and separated from its containing sac through 
which alone nutrition can be supplied. Early or late 
service can therefore have no connection with the com- 
pleteness of the nourishment of the ovum. As to the 
possibility of sex being attributable to a fresh or stale 
condition of the ovum, it is inconceivable that anything 
so fundamental as the production of male or female 
organs could be controlled by any change resulting from 
a few hours' residence outside the ovaries but still sub- 
ject to internal body conditions. Furthermore, if fe- 
males were the result of service late in the period of heat, 
then in herds and flocks continuously accompanied by 
males, and where service ordinarily occurs at the first 
indication of heat, we should find all male offspring. 
The experience and observations of managers of large 
cattle and sheep ranches do not substantiate this idea. 
Evidence of heat and the time of service are at best crude 
indications of the real time of fertilization. 

Considerable publicity has been given the theory of 

Dr. Schenck, whose advice it is purported has been 

sought by royal families of Europe. 

Influence of Schenck supposes sex to be influ- 

Body Conditions, enced by the condition of the ovum 

at fertilization. When the urine 

shows a large proportion of sugar he argues a lower 

nutritive state of the body and therefore the unripeness 

of the ova because of the less amount retained, and con- 



DETERMINATION OF SEX 139 

ception occurring at such time must result in a male. 
No extensive statistics covering tests of Schenck's theory 
are available ; inasmuch as in any case there are equal or 
slightly greater probabilities of the production of male 
offspring, no surprise need be occasioned by isolated 
instances of the appearance of males succeeding endeav- 
ors for their production. The long-continued practice 
of flushing ewes at mating time has never been claimed 
to influence the sex of the lambs as would seem to be 
the case if this idea were correct, though it is fair to state 
that Schenck emphasizes the composition rather than the 
amount of food. 

It was once held that the right ovary produces germ 
cells that always result in females, while those from the 
left are male, but instances are now 
Altcniatbig Ova. known where females with one 
• ovary removed still continue to 
produce offspring of both sexes. A similar claim was 
made with regard to male parents, but experiments con- 
ducted by James Buckingham of Zanesville, O., dis- 
proved this. Mr. Buckingham used nine sows divided 
into three similar lots. In each lot the first sow had the 
right ovary removed, the second the left, and the third 
was normal. One lot was bred to a boar whose right 
testicle was removed, the other two to boars with the 
left one removed. The litters had from seven to nine 
pigs each. In no litter was there less than three males 
or more than five females. This experiment, reported 
by Mr. Buckingham in the "Country Gentleman" of 1865, 
shows clearly that neither ovary or testicle produces 
either sex exclusively. An idea discussed in the fore- 



140 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

going is the basis for the notion which sometimes finds 
expression in the direction to breed an animal in the first, 
third or fifth period of heat after the dehvery of a female 
if a male is desired. The ovaries may act alternately but 
there is no reasonable ground for supposing that they 
differ in the sexual possibilities of their ova. 

Some believe that the older or more vigorous parent 
will control the sex. This would seem to suppose that 
the hereditary material represents 
Influence of the sex of the parent from which 

Stronger Parent. derived and that in development 
the supposed greater activity of the 
stronger parent's germ-plasm dominates that of the other 
and directs the production of the organs of the corre- 
sponding sex. Why this should be so only in regard to 
the formation of the sexual organs is hard to see. 
Neither have we any good grounds for supposing that 
the germ plasm represents or seeks to produce the sex 
of the animal from which it was derived. That such is 
not so in bees has been shown. The unreasonableness 
of this theory and the lack of data to support it render 
it untenable. 

The nutrition of the pregnant dam has also been 
thought to have a bearing on the sex of the offspring. 
As was previously stated, the fact 
Effect of that in higher animals the sex of 

Nutrition. the foetus can be observed only to- 

ward the close of the first quarter 
of the period of gestation by no means indicates that con- 
ditions prevailing subsequent to fertilization control the 
sex. On the other hand it is not proved that such is 



DETERMINATION OF SEX 141 

not the case. The general assumption is that the devel- 
opment of female young demands greater amounts of 
food and more favorable conditions than does the pro- 
duction of males. The claim is made that statistics reveal 
the fact that in countries that have been ravaged by war, 
and the food supply of the inhabitants diminished, an 
increased proportion of male children is noticeable. This 
is presented as a natural provision for the restoration of 
the proportion of males depleted by the conflicts. Data 
compiled by other students of the subject do not show 
any disproportion of sexes attributable to nutrition. 
Considerable experimental evidence is available on this 
point. Although relating to lower forms of life this 
evidence may fairly be considered as bearing upon the 
principles that govern sex in domestic animals. 

Born (1881) reared 1,443 tadpoles on a highly 
nitrogenous diet and secured 95 per cent females; others 

on ordinary diet gave 62 per cent 

Experimental females. While the tadpole is an 

Evidence. independent animal its transition 

from the frog stage corresponds 
closely to foetal development of larger animals. Born's 
method of observing the sex is now claimed to have been 
inexact. Yung (1883) reported tests in each of which 
a liberal nitrogenous diet was furnished developing tad- 
poles, giving in each case over 70 per cent females. 
More recent repetitions of the same test have failed to 
make it appear that the food influences the sex of frogs. 
Cuenot found great irregularity in the proportion of 
females in separate tests, sometimes males predominating 
and sometimes females. Much care was exercised in de- 



142 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

termining the sex, although as in earher cases the sex of 
those dying during metamorphosis could not be ascer- 
tained. On the whole he considered that his results did 
not indicate any influence of nutrition upon sex. Cuenot 
also experimented with rats, one lot being liberally fed 
with a variety of food materials while the other received 
only limited quantities of bread. The first group pro- 
duced forty-three males and forty-nine females. In 
small litters it would seem that each individual would be 
fully nourished and according to the nutrition theory an 
excess of females should appear. The total for all litters 
comprising less than nine young were, seventy-one males 
and sixty-two females.* 

From 1867 to 1873 three Investigators reported results 
favoring the idea of supposing that nutrition has an influ- 
ence upon sex in butterflies. In 
Experiments with one case Mrs. Treat reported that 
Butterflies. a starved lot produced thirty-four 

males and one female while a well- 
fed lot gave four males and sixty-eight females. Five 
other experimenters reporting between 1868 and 1874 
found no such influence. It was pointed out by 
Riley that since females are weaker a greater number 
of that sex would succumb under adverse food condi- 
tions, thus showing a preponderance of males among the 
living ones produced, not through the influence of nutri- 
tion upon sex but because of the elimination of the 
females before emerging as adults to be counted. 

Kellog and Bell of California have made an exhaust- 

*Discussion of sex in Morg-an's "Experimental Zoolog-y," chap- 
ter iJ5. 



DETERMINATION OF SEX 



143 



ive study of this subject. Their results have to do not 
only with the effect of nutrition upon the developing 
silkworms with which they worked but also show the 
influence upon sex of liberal and scant, or as they term 
it, optimum and minimum food supply, furnished to 
parents and grandparents. In their table which follows 
M indicates minimum and O optimum food supply. The 
number of deaths before maturity are separately listed. 
An examination of the table will show that the five lots 
receiving a minimum diet produced fifty males and forty- 
six females while the three lots on optimum diet produced 
twenty-three males and twenty-seven females. 

EFFECTS OF OPTIMUM AND MINIMUM FOOD SUPPLY. 



Lots. 


Fed. 


Parents. 


Grand- 
parents. 


Deaths before 
maturity. 


Males. 


Females. 


^ 



M 

M 
M 
M 

M 




M 
M 


M 
M 






M 
M 
M 
M 


2 
2 
3 





20 

21 


13 

14 
8 
8 
15 
11 
2 
2 


10 


2 


9 


3 


14 


4 


11 


5 


10 


6 


14 


7 


3 


8 


2 







Argument in favor of nutrition as a determinant of 

sex is sometimes based on the development of the queen 

bee. It is known that when a col- 

The Evidence ony loses its queen the workers by 

from Bees. furnishing liberal amounts of the 

royal jelly to a larva develop for 

themselves a new queen. This larva would otherwise 



144 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

have become an ordinary worker. If we could properly 
assume the worker to be of the male or neuter sex it 
might seem that the extra food was responsible for a 
change in sex; the worker, however, is in reality an 
undeveloped female, and the effect of the extra food 
utilized by the queen was to develop in her the egg-laying 
organs and make her a functional female. The nutrition 
effects no change in sex for femaleness was already pro- 
duced. The nutrition permitted the completion of the 
egg-laying organs. Apparent evidences of the effect of 
nutrition upon sex, as is seen, lend themselves to other in- 
terpretations and cannot be entertained by a fair-minded 
practical breeder. In the interesting case of the queen al- 
ready referred to it is well known 
Sex Probably that the eggs she lays prior to her 
Determined at maiden flight and impregnation pro- 
Conception. duce males exclusively. Subsequent 

to impregnation all offspring are 
workers, or undeveloped females, any one of which pre- 
sumably might become a queen if properly fed during 
development follow^ing hatching from the egg. In this 
case then it seems apparent that sex was determined in 
the fertilized Qgg. The fact that the unfertilized eggs 
gave males and those fertilized gave females would go to 
indicate that here the parent transmits its opposite sexual 
qualities. If it be really true that the matter of sex is 
settled at fertilization and that this applies in domestic 
animals, it must dissipate all hopes of our ever being able 
to control sex. 

The production of twins constitutes the only piece of 
evidence discussed as bearing directly on the point in 



DETERMINATION OF SEX 145 

larger animals. In the human race and in cattle the 
bearing of twins is the exception to the rule and twins 
are sometimes no more alike than children of the same 
parents born at separate times. In other cases the re- 
semblance is so great as to render distinction very diffi- 
cult. Like or identical twins are believed to be the result 
of the separation of the two cells produced by the first 
division of the fertilized ovum, the two halves developing 
separately producing two individuals wnth exactly similar 
inheritance. Unlike twins are considered to be produced 
by the fertilization and development of two distinct ova. 
As will be readily recognized in this case the inheritances 
may differ very widely. Since the like twins, those pro- 
duced by a single fertilized cell, always have the same 
sex, it seems fully probable that the germ cells them- 
selves contain the determinant of sex and that it is not 
dependent upon conditions governing gestation. We 
have also dismissed theories of control of sex based on 
ideas presented in the first section of this chapter. We 
have more scientific and more reasonable grounds for 
considering sex to be determined when the reproductive 
cells unite. 

Further evidence to support the thought that sex is 
determined at fertilization is drawn from recent investi- 
gations of the germ cells of a num- 
The Accessory ber of species of insects. Recently 
Chromosome. several investigators have located 
extra chromosome-like bodies in 
germ cells of numerous kinds of insects. These extra 
bodies, or accessory chromosomes as they are now im- 
properly called, were not at first regarded as chromo- 



146 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

somes because of their unusual size, being sometimes 
larger and sometimes smaller than the ordinary chromo- 
somes among which they occur. Further difficulty was 
also afforded bytheir having no mates. 

The accessory chromosome was first noted by von 
Siebold in 1836; he found it only in the spermatozoa of 
a particular snail. Following this there were found sev- 
eral instances in which spermatozoa were of two equally 
numerous kinds, those having a certain number of chro- 
mosomes and those with one more than that number. 
In the early stages of male germ cells this acces- 
sory chromosome splits and divides in the ordinary 
manner. In one of the reducing division stages it fails 
to split, however, thus producing from each spermatocyte 
two ordinary spermatozoa and two w^ith an accessory 
chromosome. It was suggested by McClung that when 
the female Qgg is fertilized by a spermatozoon containing 
the accessory chromosome the resulting offspring would 
be of one sex while the union of the ovum wnth an ordi- 
nary spermatozoon would produce the opposite sex. 
Shortly afterward how^ever a similar irregularity was 
found to exist in the eggs of some females. 

It is clearly established that in the case of the com- 
mon squash bug (anasa tristis) the 
Significance of body cells of the female have 

the Accessory twenty-two chromosomes and those 

Chromosome. of the male twenty-one.* The same 

is true of the primitive germ cells. 

In the reduction of the germ cells with twenty-two 

* Wilson: Studies on Chromosomes, "Journal of Experimental 
Zoology," II, 1905; III, 1906. 



DETERMINATION OF SEX 147 

chromosomes all ova will of course have eleven chromo- 
somes each. In the case of the male germ cells, however, 
since the twenty-first chromosome does not divide, one- 
half the spermatozoa will have ten and the other half 
eleven chromosomes. If, then, a eleven chromosome egg 
be fertilized by a ten chromosome spermatozoon the off- 
spring will have twenty-one, the number occurring in 
males. If it be the eleven chromosome spermatozoon 
that fertilizes the ovum, the resulting number will be 
twenty-two or female. The same explanation is repeated 
in the diagram: 

Spermatazoon. Egg. 

10 J- n = 21 = male. 

or or 

11 1- 11 = 22 = female. 

The known facts concerning the accessory chromo- 
somes by no means dispose of the problem of the deter- 
mination of sex. The fact, however, that the male and 
female adults in the case referred to have different num- 
bers of chromosomes in their body cells is practical proof 
that the accessory chromosome is associated with sex, 
and this being true, the happenings presented in the 
diagram are highly probable. This is additional strong 
evidence that sex is determined at fertilization, and that 
it is beyond human influence before so determined. In 
view of the present study of the 
Undesirability subject it seems cpiite likely that 
of Sex Control. we may soon have a more intelli- 
gent idea of the basis of sex. That 
sex of farm animals should generally be under the con- 
trol of man seems hardly desirable. The present near- 



148 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

ness to equality of numbers of the two sexes is of great 
importance in the preservation and improvement of types 
by affording a large number of males from which to se- 
lect the best ones for service. Full control over sex 
would seem to give man a power that would not be exer- 
cised to his own best advantage or to that of the races of 
his animals. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

FOUNDATION AND MANAGEMENT OF A 
BREEDING BUSINESS. 

The preceding pages have not deah with the origina- 
tion and perpetuation of new types or characters ; that 
phase of heredity is reserved for a later place. Discus- 
sion has been confined to those aspects of heredity most 
likely to suggest why things are as they are, and how 
existing types and characters of excellence may be ren- 
dered most nearly certain of reproduction. In a sense 
it may be truly said that breeding is entirely based upon 
the single principle of selection ; that is, if selections are 
right the desired results must follow. Competent selec- 
tion, however, has been shown to be dependent upon 
diverse considerations and may be said to necessitate the 
application of the further principles of judging, feeding 
and other requisites of development, and each of those in 
turn amounts to an independent study. 

It is obvious that stock-raising cannot become an 
exact science. It consists of the handling of the heredi- 
tary material that does not lend 
Breeding itself to direct examination or to 

an Art. manipulation. The breeder's call- 

ing must be regarded as an art. 
Extensive studied experience may in part be substituted 

(149) 



150 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

by study of allied sciences, yet the chief factor is the 
natural personal equipment of the artist or breeder. The 
use of tests and records at first blush may appear to give 
the work a mathematical aspect, yet as was shown, the 
only positive feature it introduces is the measure of indi- 
vidual functional capacity and leaves much else to be 
considered in mating. 

An understanding of the relation of selection to 
breeding and of environment to selection does not sug- 
gest any procedures different from those of the best 

breeders. It does afford an appre- 

Thc Breeder's ciation of the necessity of unflag- 

Personal ging attention to each detail in each 

Equipment. animal's life. Although this is an 

asset that can only be fully acquired 
by actual experience a large measure of it may come as 
a result of a study that gives familiarity with the facts 
and a w^orking appreciation of the practices of those wdio 
have succeeded. The personal qualification of first im- 
portance is an intelligent liking for the work. It is easy 
to allow the glare of the sbowring to convince one that 
he would enjoy the stockman's life, but a better test of 
inherent fondness is a close contact with the details of 
daily care, not so much of charges destined for showing 
as with the breeding stock and the young animals in the 
making. Such associations will not originate fondness 
for the work in persons talented altogether in other lines, 
but where there is natural inherent liking for animals 
the proper environment will develop useful and reliable 
leanings and opinions. With this fundamental equip- 
ment assured the would-be breeder is likely to apply him- 



FOUNDATION AND MANAGEMENT 151 

self in such a way as to reach a fair degree of efficiency 
in the special branches of his calling. 

The first special branch is that of judging animals 
and judging pedigrees. Stock judging is so widely 

taught that practically anyone can 
Judging receive the aid of the teaching of 

Ability. persons experienced, not only in 

judging but in the teaching of 
judging. Practice alone, however, can give real effi- 
ciency in judging. It is essential to recognize that 
the basis of judgment is the faculty of making 
a ready and fair decision upon each animal as an 
individual. One who has not rightfully acquired 
sufficient confidence in his own judgment to be ready 
to retain his opinions in the face of some opposi- 
tion is still unprepared to render decisions of moment to 
himself or others. The attractiveness of the work lies 
in the fact that with most animals there can be no prac- 
tical test of the correctness of any judgment. The only 
criterion is the opinion of others, and the safety of the 
calling lies in the fact that there is no one single standard 
of perfection and not all breeders can be pursuing a 
wrong ideal at one time. Ability to officiate in the show- 
ring is not a guarantee of ability to do all the judging 
a breeder must do. An important part of a breeder's 
judging consists in passing upon the merits of animals 

he already owns or has raised and 

Impartiality to properly estimate their merits in 

Essential. comparison with those owned and 

raised by others. The disposition 
to allow personal ownership to blind one to the defects 



152 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

of his Stock, or to fail to recognize the merit in that 
of other breeders, is an insurmountable barrier to im- 
provement. 

The judging of pedigrees demands acquaintance with 

at least the more recent history of the breed handled. 

This requires application and a re- 

Value of tenti\x memory. One who has the 

Breed History. natural interest in the work will 
find his memory capable of retain- 
ing a fair knowledge of pedigrees for at least one breed, 
even though lacking in other matters. A full knowledge 
of breed history, including the practices of the founders 
and improvers, their conditions and the demands made 
upon them, gives a breeder an intelligent understanding 
of and wholesome respect for his animals. It also gives 
a greater fitness to judge the future of his breed and its 
relation and his own relation to agricultural progress. 

Feeding is a chief factor in environment. It consti- 
tutes a separate study which must be mastered and ap- 
plied. An active interest in each phase of the w^ork is 
also necessary in care and feeding to insure the proper 
observation of the peculiar wants of each individual and 
the adjustment of the environment to those peculiarities. 
Only the most judicious care and feeding can render 
possible any more than a rare chance realization of the 
possibilities the animals have inherited. 

Breeding is a many-sided profession. A man may 
have and do all that has been sug- 

Salesmanship. gested and yet fail of accomplish- 
ment through poor salesmanship. 
Ordinarily speaking, a breeding enterprise once launched 



FOUNDATION AND MANAGEMENT 



153 




154 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

must be its own financial support. New males and ad- 
ditional females must be of distinctly high class and will 
cost proportionately. Their purchase price must be 
raised by the sale of a part of the increase. No matter 
how well bred and how well developed the increase may 
be, some skill is required to dispose of it advantageously. 
The principles of selling live stock are exactly the same 
as those of selling any other commodity. The produc- 
tion of a high-class article is the first step. Then it must 
be brought to the attention of the people for whom it is 
best suited. Advertising through the press, the show 
and through sales must all be 
Advertising. studied. The buyer having been 

reached, it must be recognized that 
the treatment accorded him is sure to be either a good or 
bad advertisement. The disposition to fairly recognize 
the interests of the buyer on every point is the basis of 
satisfactory dealing. The raiser of market stock has the 
great advantage over the breeder of pure breeds in being 
able to sell wholesale at actual values at any time. In 
either case, however, the buyers usually seek the seller 
when the highest class of stuff is wanted and of necessity 
permit him to make the prices; with inferior stuff the 
reverse is true. 

The chief personal qualification of a breeder has not 
yet been touched upon. It may be spoken of as the cour- 
age of convictions. No matter how 
Executive complete may be the knowledge of 

Ability. what should be done, unless there 

is a practical faith of sufficient 
strength to carry the information into execution, no re- 



FOUNDATION xVND MANAGEMENT 155 

suit can be obtained. Of breeding it is as true as of other 
professions that the number who have fallen because they 
failed to do what they knew should be done is much 
greater than of those who fell short of the top through 
not knowing what to do. 

Opportunities for profit and distinction sometimes 
attract men with large financial resources to the profes- 
sion of breeding. But these may 
Wealthy lack the true stockman's personal 

Breeders. inheritance. The early failure of 

such men is cited by the uninitiated 
as illustrating the caprices of the calling. On the other 
hand it is a fact that much of the most valuable service 
to the stock-breeding world has been and is being per- 
formed by men whose large means were accumulated in 
mercantile lines. Undoubtedly the financial standing of 
such breeders is of prime assistance in enabling them to 
bring together animals whose mating produces merit not 
before attained; matings which would have been impos- 
sible to persons of more modest fortune. An equally 
vital factor is found in their business training. Such 
men have already demonstrated their business capacities 
in accumulating the means they choose to employ in 
breeding. The business principles of doing everything 
at the right time and undertaking nothing that cannot 
be thoroughly done are as productive of returns in stock- 
breeding as in any other field. It is not necessary to 
minimize the artistic side of breeding in order to em- 
phasize the dependence of the proceeds and continuation 
of the work upon the observance of the best principles 
that govern production and sale in all lines. Use of poor 



156 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

materials and indifference or lack of study in their com- 
bination may yield an occasional chance article of value, 
but such a system can lead only to disappointment. 

Conservative procedure in establishing a breeding en- 
terprise will avoid many serious handicaps to its con- 
tinuation. Location has much to do 
Location. with breeding, with rearing and 

with selling. So far as the selHng 
is concerned the prospective trade in the immediate vi- 
cinity is really of secondary importance. Though it may 
be less true in the future than it is now it is a fact that a 
large proportion of buyers of breeding stock are more 
appreciative of animals reared in remote parts. Facili- 
ties for selHng afforded by a given location may be 
chiefly considered with regard to ease of access for buyers, 
convenience of shipping and proximity of other breeders. 

More important still is the matter of securing a lo- 
cation that will allow at lowest cost the environment to 
which the breed has been accustomed and for which it is 
calculated. Even though no dependence is to be laid 
upon the demands of the immediate vicinity, yet it would 
be overw^eighting the venture to attempt to produce stock 
for other sections under conditions not naturally favor- 
able. Over-enthusiasm wath the thought of what it is 
hoped to produce sometimes hinders the wisest choice of 
location. If selection be right and the surroundings fail 
to furnish the requisites for development, so far as feed 
is concerned, reliance can still be had on purchased mate- 
rials. Purchased dry fodder, grains and by-products 
may be as well for the animal as similar home-raised 
feeds but cannot supplement rich pastures and fresh 



FOUNDATION AND MANAGEMENT 157 

green fodders in the fullest and most economical develop- 
ment of any class of stock. A small 
Home Grown percentage of outstanding animals 
Feeds. sell at a price out of all comparison 

with their cost, but the majority, 
even including some of the really useful ones, find their 
market at a figure not very far from their cost under 
reasonable conditions. In other words, the margin of 
profit in the majority of instances is not a very wide one. 
If a record be kept of all items of expense in producing 
any animal it w^ill be found that the outlay for feed ex- 
ceeds any other item. The difference between cost of 
purchased and home-raised feeds may easily amount to 
as much as the difference between a profitable and a los- 
ing selling price on the animal, even if it were possible to 
secure the same development as might be had with crops 
ahvays ready at hand and in most desirable condition for 
feeding. 

It is rather exceptional, however, that a breeding en- 
terprise is planned before the consideration of a location. 
In a majority of instances a breed- 
S train More ing enterprise evolves from a desire 
Important Than to secure a product of greatest value 
Breed. from pasture or feeds available un- 

der a fixed set of conditions. The 
conditions being already set, they must govern the selec- 
tion of the class of animals to be dealt with. In America 
to-day one sees leading breeds of draft horses and of 
beef cattle competing with each other for popular favor in 
counties where the conditions are uniform, the systems 
of rearing similar, and all raisers catering to the same 



158 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

market; there is apparently no recognition that each 
breed is a product of selection for the special require- 
ments of peculiar sections. When one also witnesses 
adherents of the same breed differing with each other as 
to which particular type should be preferred he may well 
be confused. It is necessary to understand that while pro- 
nounced features of utility are uniformly characteristic of 
breeds, yet peculiar and inexplicable personal likings have 
caused persons aiming to fill the same want to select dif- 
ferent breeds, and the raiser of one breed may be select- 
ing and feeding for a standard very different from the 
one that inspires another adherent of the same breed. 
It is not sufficient to know the characteristics, history 
and accustomed environment of the breed in its home 
surroundings; the same study must apply to the separ- 
ate strains within the breed. 

The most practical method of becoming a seller of 
breeding stock is to commence by breeding for the mar- 
ket. Practically all the founders of 

Starting from existing breeds were at first in this 

Market Stock. position, but since at present reg- 
istered animals must be descended 
from other registered animals, some such stock must 
be included in any herd that is not expected to continue 
to supply regular market trade. Such added pure-breds 
should of course be of sufficiently high order of merit 
to give promise of improving the rest of the herd. The 
price at which they may be bought however must be in 
proportion to the value of the excellence they can im- 
part to their progeny. 

In draft horses and meat-producing breeds of stock 



FOUNDATION AND MANAGEMENT 159 

the real feeding and marketing of all male increase show 
conclusively which are the most profitable dams and 
they can be retained as proved individuals together with 
their female increase, which in their turn may be like- 
wise required to prove their right to be retained. Such 
selection, based only upon demonstrated merit, renders 
possible the accumulation in course of time of a band 
of females of highest value. It necessitates of course 
the use of only such sires as promise to improve the best 
that has already been attained, and it implies the imme- 
diate elimination of any whose get are not superior to 
the dams. Such management, while not the fastest route 
of entry into the breeding fraternity, may be very fruit- 
ful both of financial reward and of experience, and it 
certainly gives the best possible foundation. 

When it is planned to enter immediately upon the 
scheme of selling the young stock as breeders, the selec- 
tion of the foundation stock is a 
Not How Many, test of actual faith in the princi- 
B}ii How Good, pies and standards. Animals that 
are at least fully equal to what 
might be procured under the plan just discussed should 
be chosen and will of course come at high prices. The 
best is none too good to start with and should be in- 
sisted upon even if funds demand restriction of pur- 
chases to a single individual. The fact that an animal 
is priced high is not a guarantee of merit, nor is a low 
price proof of inferiority. Unless the beginner is suffi- 
ciently experienced to be able to procure a fair return for 
his expenditures purchasing had better be postponed. 
Young breeders of limited means are sometimes counseled 



160 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

to select a number of animals of ordinary merit in 
preference to a smaller number of 
Cheap Fonnda- superior ones of equal value. The 
tion Stock. assumption is that experience can 

be acquired with less risk of loss 
and improvement can be effected subsequently. If it 
planned to place such stock in commercial herds and 
offer nothing for sale for breeding purposes, the coun- 
sel is well given. If, however, the immediate in- 
crease is to be retained or offered for sale as breeders, 
acceptance of such advice is a step toward disappointment 
and failure. The difficulty of disposing of the offspring 
of mediocre parents and the meagreness of the profits 
they return are very unlikely to encourage the subse- 
quent addition of really good individuals. The common 
character of such stock and the lack of interest they in- 
spire are almost sure to result in lack of the care and 
opportunity they especially need and which would be 
more readily accorded to more attractive and more highly 
prized individuals. In the desire to multiply numbers 
worthy and unworthy produce are likely to be retained 
and the enlargement of numbers is the chief if not the 
only direction in which progress is effected. 

"The best is the cheapest" is a thoroughly practical 
maxim. The offspring of the female of common indi- 
viduality or common ancestry, or 
Merit in Both both, requires as much expenditure 
Parents Essential, of care and feed to bring it to a 
salable age and condition as does an 
outstanding good one, and it is in turn sought only by 
those with whom a low price is a primary consideration. 



FOUNDATION AND MANAGEMENT 



161 




162 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

It is true that lack of pronounced merit in foundation 
females can be largely counterbalanced by extraordinary 
excellence of the male with which they are mated, but 
real conservatism would favor a small equipment with 
the basis of success laid on all sides, rather tlian a more 
extensive but unbalanced plan of which one part is ex- 
pected to atone for the other, instead of placing reliance 
on each. ''Not how many but how good" is no more 
applicable at any point than in the laying of the founda- 
tion. Though it will of course not be feasible to pur- 
chase any number or even a few females of the highest 
approach to perfection, uniformity of type among what 
are procured must first of all be insisted upon. Such de- 
fects in conformation as really cannot be avoided must 
find their counteracting force in the male. Obviously, 
then, it is desirable to postpone the purchase of a male 
until the females are on hand for comparison and study. 

It is a severe test of any sire to be called upon to stamp 
his excellence on the offspring of females wdiich even 
though they be uniform in type are 
The First gathered from different sources and 

Sire. represent different lines of breed- 

ing. Only an impressive animal, 
strong where the females are weak and with unusually 
good ancestry, can be relied upon to meet such require- 
ments, and as is commonly said he should first be se- 
lected and then purchased. 

The use of any unproved sire is somewhat of an ex- 
periment and the greatest danger lies in failing to recog- 
nize and admit that such a one is not leaving offspring 
as good as they might reasonably be expected to be. The 



FOUNDATION AND MANAGEMENT 163 

best values are sometimes offered in successful sires 
owned by men who insist on changing to avoid in-breed- 
ing, or to avoid keeping two males. If a well preserved 
though aged male that has proved good is obtainable, 
no objections can be raised to justify passing over such 
a one for the most promising young and untested indi- 
vidual. It is in the selection of a 
The Second second sire that greatest difficulties 
Sire. are likely to arise. Even though 

the first should be satisfactory, his 
progeny are soon ready to be mated and unless the num- 
ber of females on hand justifies the maintenance of two 
sires a new one is necessary. Undue haste is often exer- 
cised in disposing of the old sire. If he has been suc- 
cessful in improving upon the merit of the females he 
may well be retained until the experimental stage of his 
successor's career is passed. The trouble and expense 
of maintenance is but small in comparison to what is 
gained, and the"e is the further advantage of adding to 
the number of females of the same breeding. This simi- 
larity of breeding of the females renders the selection of 
a later sire much more simple than it is when he must 
be mated with females of varied inheritance. The selec- 
tion of the second sire is more difficult than that of the 
first because he must be suited both to the remaining 
original females and to their offspring. If these latter 
are an improvement upon their dams, as they should 
have been if retained, then the second sire must be of 
considerably higher character than his predecessor. It 
is not a wise procedure to make the experiment of mat- 
ing all the females to even the most promising young 



164 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

male. He should be procured some time before he will 
be most needed and mated with older females whose 
breeding qualities are known. This affords a means of 
detecting objectionable features in his get without allow- 
ing him to mar the entire increase of a breeding season. 

Many a breeder has brought his 

Phc^wmcnal herd into prominence through the 

Sires. merits of a single phenomenal sire. 

The possession of such a phenome- 
non is in considerable degree attributable to good for- 
tune, for not even the most discerning can positively say 
that this or that unproved male will beget progeny uni- 
formly of extraordinary merit. Nevertheless he who is 
most assiduously in search of and determined to procure 
a herd-header of unusual rank, and who has the faith 
that will prompt him to secure possession of the near- 
est approach to his standard, is the one to whom the good 
fortune of the phenomenal sire is most likely to fall. 

Even if no serious mistakes are made in selecting sires 
or in culling of female increase, it takes a good many 

generations to reach a satisfactory 

Culling the degree of uniformity in the excel- 

Fcmalcs. lence of an entire herd. Not all 

can have an inheritance of unmixed 
good, and the weaker ones must be weeded out as they 
appear. A sire may leave some undesirable character in 
some of his get which it may be deemed wise to retain for 
other reasons, or some of the more valuable families may 
be less prolific than is necessary to enable their increase 
to dominate the whole herd. With continued progress 
new and higher standards come to be held. Perfection 



FOUNDATION AND MANAGEMENT 165 

or even a close approach to it in every individual ani- 
mal is not to be expected, and though it were attained, 
there must still be variation in the abilities of those ani- 
mals to reproduce their excellence. A breeder may be 
said to have achieved a measurable degree of control over 
heredity and to have earned distinction when the most 
of the animals he rears can be relied upon to elevate the 
herds of his contemporaries. 

Such a height is not likely to be reached without con- 
siderable showyard fame attaching to the herd, though 
the estimation accorded the stock by those who have 
found it a dependable source of desirable qualities is of 
even more moment than ribbons won in competitions 
where individuality alone must govern. Such uniform 
excellence and prepotency can not be expected within 
the second or the third generation from even the choic- 
est band of females brought to- 
Unifonnity gether from different localities and 

in Females. which must necessarily be dissim- 

ilar in breeding. It is when the fe- 
male ancestors have been for many generations under the 
immediate direction of a man who is capable and actively 
interested that the possibilities of selection appear to the 
best advantage, and the greater the length of time such 
condition has obtained the greater the possibilities. The 
real foundation herd must be bred. Such a history allows 
the owner or manager to have within his own memory a 
personal acquaintance with each ancestor of likely in- 
fluence. It enables him to know fully all inherent tend- 
encies and to dictate the matings with the greatest pos- 
sible measure of assurance. Mistakes are sure to be 



166 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

made and reverses experienced and these must be cor- 
rected and overcome. Though much may be accom- 
phshed in one or two decades, even 
Value of Long the most capable breeders will find 
Established Herds, the fruits of their selection becom- 
ing* more and more apparent in 
proportion to the number of years of unremitting vigi- 
lance and application. In this lies the most important 
real advantage of European breeders. Their herds in 
many instances have been handed from fathers to sons, 
who have continued selection toward the same ideal until 
the hereditary material has been freed from all serious 
impurities and represents a degree of strength and pur- 
ity that insures the highest degree of excellence and pre- 
potency. 

The animals of an old herd have pedigrees in which 
the owner appears almost to the exclusion of other breed- 
ers; in fact he has constructed the pedigrees of his ani- 
mals and in proportion as he has succeeded and has 
earned the confidence and respect of his fraternity the 
succeeding breeders will prize the results of his labors. 



CHAPTER XV. 

INBREEDING AND LINE BREEDING. 

In the minds of the majority of persons who consider 
matters relating to breeding, the idea is firmly fixed 
that the practice of inbreeding is altogether objectionable. 
In general it is described as the mating of close rela- 
tionships, though what is sometimes considered to fall 
within the term is in other instances designated by milder 
phrases. In really correct usage inbreeding designates 
the union between brother and sister or between offspring 
and parent, in one or more generations. Popularly con- 
sidered line breeding is applied to matings of a degree 
of consanguinity not included in the foregoing definition. 
Those who advocate breeding in line fear the results 
of actual inbreeding, and aim to avoid the uncertainties 
of mixing strains or families totally unrelated though 
belonging to the same breed. In the minds and speech 
of present-day breeders, however, there is no generally 

recognized distinction between in- 

Inhr ceding breeding and line breeding. The 

Defined. principle involved is the same, and 

the difference is one of degree. 
Most of wdiat is commonly referred to as inbreedine is 
not in reality such. In order to be clear in discussing the 
subject as it is before our breeders today inbreeding will 
be considered as the mating of two animals with suf- 

(167) 



168 



BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 



ficient similarity of ancestry to make 50 per cent of the 
inheritance of one identical with the same proportion in 
its mate, the inheritance in common not being necessarily 
that of a single animal. 

TWO PEDIGREES SHOWING INBREEDING. 
D 



to 



U 
Ik 

1m 



In each of the above cases A is inbred. In the first in- 
stance son and daughter of D are mated. In the sec- 
ond, the dam of B is full brother to the sire of C, that 
is, B and C are full first cousins. 

Line breeding may be differentiated from inbreeding 
by defining it as the mating of two individuals identical 
to the extent of 25 per cent and 
Line less than 50 per cent of their blood. 

Breeding, Line breeding however really im- 

plies something more; it implies a 
succession of sires that trace their descent in some meas- 
ure to the same individual. The example on the opposite 
page shows typical line breeding. 

In this case the descendants of the female I have been 
line-bred. G having two lines to I has been mated with 
F who is also a grandson of I and their progeny C is 
bred to B, another grandson of I. In no case have full 
first cousins been mated. The blood of I preponderates 



INBREEDING AND LINE BREEDING 



169 



in A and yet there has been sufficient latitude to allow 
the selection and use of only the better individuals from 
the descendants of I, and so valuable characters may be 
thus retained, not so fully as might be if inbreeding were 
practiced but in a safe and useful degree. 

AN EXAMPLE OF LINE BREEDING. 



fB 



c 



■{, 



{, 



LG. 



I: 



The difference between line breeding and inbreeding 
is one of degree. The principle being the same it may be 
discussed at once for both. The popular use of the term 
*'blood" in this connection is likely to be misleading and 
should be substituted by some term to designate the 
hereditary material itself. Also there is strong proba- 
bility of error in assuming that because of the parentage 
mentioned that 25 per cent of the germ-plasm in B is 
identical with a similar proportion of the same material 
that entered into the make-up of C. The process typi- 
fied in maturation shows that there may be a wide dif- 
ference between the combination of chromosomes re- 
ceived, for instance, by E from J and K and that re- 



170 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

ceived by F from the same individuals in the sample pedi- 
gree showing inbreeding. This possibility of dissimilar- 
ity may explain the variable results observed in apparently 
similar instances of the mating of closely related animals. 
Most states have laws forbidding the marriage of first 
cousins. These laws seem to be based on somewhat sim- 
ilar injunctions issued to the chil- 
Opposition to dren of Israel and recorded in the 
Inbreeding. book of Leviticus. While those 

laws are entirely defensible on the 
grounds of the dependence of a nation's strength upon 
the purity of the family lives of its citizens, it is not neces- 
sary to suppose them to have been originally formulated 
solely in the interest of the progeny. The Mosaic law 
precludes cohabitation in cases where no actual relation- 
ship exists. Familiar statistics regarding relationship of 
parents of inmates of institutions for defectives and in- 
sane will not be cited. In spite of the biased attitude 
of compilers of such data and the contradictory character 
of the teaching of the facts accumulated at different times 
and places, the impression is irresistible that to some 
degree at least the kinship of the parents is a considerable 
factor in the production of such abnormalities. Atten- 
tion must be drawn to the unfairness here, and in re- 
gard to acquired characters, of assuming a complete 
parallelism between our domestic animals and the mem- 
bers of the human family. The developing period of the 
human infant is so much longer, the impressions bear- 
ing upon it so much stronger, and its susceptibilities so 
infinitely more acute, that the possibilities of environ- 
mental modifications, mental and physical, are out of all 



INBREEDING AND LINE BREEDING 



171 




172 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

comparison to their import in organisms of lower place. 
Even a slight inherited predisposition to defective men- 
tality may be fostered by continuous impressions in the 
home or outside life. The compensating qualities may 
be so dwarfed by the absence of forces essential to their 
development that it is quite reasonable to explain the 
facts as being the result of special circumstances, assisted 
or not by inherited leaning, which might never be sus- 
pected in the presence of counteracting environment. 

Some of the injurious effects of inbreeding are set 
forth in the histories of the breeds. Thomas Bates' 

Duchess family of Short-horns was 

Thomas Bates, bred very closely, probably no less 

and Inbreeding. because of a desire to inbreed than 

because of the inferior character of 
unrelated stock. A pedigree of one of the members 
of this family is shown on the opposite page. 

The intensification of the Duchess blood is further 
shown in the fact that of the twenty-two bulls used with 
Duchess cows, The Earl (646) sired five Duchesses; 
Second Hubback, twelve, and Belvedere, nine. The first 
was out of Duchess 3d; the second had Duchess blood 
only through his sire and the third was wholly unre- 
lated though himself inbred. The final condition of the 
family, with respect to fertility, is shown by Sanders* in 
the table on page 174 which when summarized shows that 
up to 1849, from fifty-eight Duchess females of which 
the first was calved in 1808 and six later than 1841, a 
total of no calves were produced. Of the fifty-eight, 
twenty-four never produced calves. 

*"Short-horn Cattle," pp. 113-114. 



INBREEDING AND LINE BREEDING 



173 



DUCHESS 55TH. 



en C 



a>0 



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5- W 




w 


H 


n 


In5 


> 


(T> 


p" 






3 


Oi 


(f 


o 


w 


^ 


^ 


H 


o 


c 




p 




cr 


3 


M 






S' 


P 



>KJ ;t>Kl KiZ Kj^ 


Kl 


T O 


S o 


O o 


O o 


P 


(T] C 


orq C 




c ^ 


►1 


rr ri 


m n 


3 ^ 


3 Ji 


C 


:i:cr(5 


ir.Jq 


crq- 


ffq^ 


O 


N 


N 


r^ 


W^ 


o 


VJ 


<<; 






Uq 



<:) 


n 


lO 


> 


P 


d 




3 


o 


ffi 


on? 






C 




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'^ 




3 
P 



00 O'S tdH >^< >^ 

S S£^ Wg^ 5^°^ 5-^ 
"" ^"^ 12. P^ P^ 

- 5 a a 



0^ 

HiP 



a> 3^ 
o P 



3 O 

orq c 

(T 3 
13 . 

p^ 

3 
P 



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30 
crq C 
rt) 3 
:rorq 

N 

3 



•w ^^ CT 



174 



BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 



LIST OF PRODUCE OF DUCHESS COWS. 











<- 


Calves produced— N 










^Males-s 


.—Females— - 










Bulls 


Steers 




Name Born 


Color 


Sire 


Dam 


named 


not 
named 


Lived Died 


ichess 1 1808 


r & w 


Comet 




1 




4 


2 1812 


r & w 


Ketton 


1 


2 




2 


3 1815 


r & w 


Ketton 


1 


4 


1 


4 


4 1816 


r & w 


Ketton 2d 


1 


1 




3 


5 1817 


r & w 


Ketton 2d 






1 


1 


6 1819 


r & w 


Ketton 3d 


4 




1 


4 


7 1820 


r & w 


Marske 


3 








8 1820 


r & w 


Marske 


2 


1 


1 


3 


9 1821 


r & w 


Marske 


2 




1 


2 


10 1822 


r & w 


Cleveland 


4 








11 1822 


r & w 


Young- Marske 


5 




1 


2 


12 1822 


red 


The Earl 


4 






1 


13 1823 




The Earl 


9 








14 1823 


r & w 


The Earl 


6 




1 




15 1824 




The Earl 


8 








16 1824 


y & w 


The Earl 


3 






1 


17 1825 


r & w 


3d Earl 


11 








18 1825 




2d Hubback 


6 








19 1825 


y & r 


2d Hubback 


12 






5 1 


20 1825 


r & w 


2d Earl 


8 






2 


21 1825 


r & w 


2d Earl 


3 








22 1826 


r & w 


2d Hubback 


9 








23 1826 




2d Earl 


11 








24 1826 


r & w 


2d Hubback 


6 








25 1826 


r & w 


2d Hubback 


8 








26 1826 


r & w 


2d Hubback 


3 


1 


1 


1 


27 1827 


r & w 


2d Hubback 


16 








28 1827 


r & w 


2d Hubback 


6 








29 1829 


r & w 


2d Hubback 


20 






1 


30 1830 


r & w 


2d Hubback 


20 




3 ■ 


6 


31 1830 


r & w 


2d Hubback 


26 








32 1831 


r & w 


2d Hubback 


19 


1 




1 


33 1832 


roan 


Belvedere 


19 






1 


34 1832 


r & w 


Belvedere 


29 


4 


1 


2 


35 1833 


red 


Gambler 


19 








36 1834 


r & w 


Belvedere 


19 








37 1834 


r & w 


Belvedere 


30 


1 


2 


2 


38 1835 


roan 


Norfolk 


33 


1 




2 


39 1835 


roan 


Belvedere 


30 








40 1835 


roan 


Belvedere 


19 








41 1835 


roan 


Belvedere 


32 


2 




2 


42 1837 


roan 


Belvedere 


30 




1 




43 1837 


red 


Belvedere 


34 


1 


1 




44 1838 


r & w 


Short Tail 


37 








45 1838 


r & w 


Short Tail 


30 


1 






46 1838 


r & w 


Short Tail 


34 








47 1839 


red 


Short Tail 


37 








48 1839 


r & w 


Short Tail 


30 








49 1839 


r & w 


Short Tail 


30 


1 




1 


50 1839 


white 


D. of N'th'land 


38 


1 




1 


51 1840 


roan 


Cleveland Lad 


41 


3 


2 


1 


52 1841 


r & w 


Holkar 


38 








53 1842 


roan 


D. of N'th'land 


41 








54 1844 


red 


2d Cleveland Lad 49 


1 




3 


55 1844 


red 


4th Duke of N. 


38 


1 




1 


56 1844 


r & w 


2d Duke 


51 


1 




2 


57 1844 


roan 


2d Cleveland Lad 54 








58 1846 


red 


Lord Barrington 54 






1 



29 



18 



63 



INBREEDING AND LINE BREEDING 175 

* Although the Bates Duchesses have been regarded as 
the striking instance of the results of close breeding, the 
following facts deduced from Mr. Sanders' table are 
worthy of study : The later Duchesses were presum- 
ably more intensely bred than the earlier ones. In the 
first half of the period from the birth of Duchess ist 
to that of Duchess 58th, or down to 1827, twenty-eight 
Duchesses were produced. In the last nineteen years 
thirty Duchesses. The last thirty produced fifty-six 
calves being no less prolific than the 
Barrenness in first twenty-eight which produced 
Earl Vnehesses. fifty-four calves. The first twenty- 
eight Duchesses included twelve 
barren ones, the last thirty, the same number. The 
third Duchess had two barren daughters by different 
sires, so evidently the tendency to barrenness was pres- 
ent in the early days of the family and did not wait 
until after the closer breeding had been done to show it- 
self. Whatever may be the condition or character that 
causes barrenness it must have a physical basis and lend 
itself to intensification through close mating in the same 
manner as other physical qualities, but it is not shown 
that inbreeding originated the barrenness in the Bates 
Duchesses. 

The claim has been cjuite freely made within recent 

years that the present type of Po- 

Szvine land-China is much less prolific than 

Statisties. were earlier representatives of the 

breed, and that some of the loss 

is due to the matings of related families to produce 

the present exceptional individuals. Conditions govern- 



176 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

Ing" selection may be considered as sufficient to account 
in themselves for the result, but inasmuch as it has been 
stated that the facts are not really as supposed, a discus- 
sion is not out of place. Rommel* has compiled statistics 
from the American and Ohio Poland-China registers 
comparing the average size of litters from 1892-6 with 
the average size of all litters registered from 1898- 1902 
the figures being 7.04 for the earlier time and 7.52 for the 
latter, thus indicating that there has been no falling off 
in fecundity. These figures, however, do not of them- 
selves invalidate the claim of decreased fecundity. At 
best a very small proportion of the animals registered 
represent the so-called showyard type against which crit- 
icisms are principally lodged. It remains to be shown 
statistically, that the herds of the extreme show type, 
in which close breeding has been most common, have re- 
tained the prolificacy of their more primitive progeni- 
tors. 

The result of experiments conducted to furnish data 

upon the effect of inbreeding, and in which all other influ- 

erices w^ere carefully excluded, are 

Laboratory of more than ordinary interest. 

Experiments. Bos,t a German investigator, bred a 
family of rats for six years without 
introduction of any new individuals. Young rats were 
bred back to their parents and females were mated with 
their full brothers, such being continued for thirty gen- 
erations. During the first twenty generations there was 
a slight decrease in prolificacy. The average number of 

♦Bureau of Animal Industry Circular No. 95. 

tReported fully in Morgan's "Experimental Zoology," chapter 



INBREEDING AND LINE BREEDING 177 

young per litter with the initial stock was 7!/^ and in the 
twentieth generation 6 21-36. In ten generations suc- 
ceeding the average size of litters rapidly decreased to 
one-half the original number, and 41.18 per cent of the 
pairings were fruitless. An accompanying decrease of 
20 per cent in size is also recorded. Breeding of mother 
to son and daughter to father was less injurious than 
breeding brothers and sisters. Though of a lower type, 
rats are as truly mammals as are cattle. While the ulti- 
mate results of this experiment are very striking, it is 
important to observe that the injurious influence on fer- 
tility was evidenced only after the twentieth generation 
of very close matings. 

Castle* and his associates have inbred the pomace- 
fly, (Drocophila ampelophia) for fifty-nine generations. 
Brothers and sisters were caged together and their off- 
spring selected in the pupa stage for pairing in other 
separate chambers. Where two pupae developed the 
same in sex a rearrangement was made to secure the 
presence in each chamber of male and female from the 
same parents. Castle's conclusions from this work are 
as follows : 

(i) "Inbreeding probably reduces very slightly the 
productiveness of Drocophila, but the productiveness may 
be fully maintained under constant inbreeding (brother 
with sister) if selection is made from the more produc- 
tive families. 

(2) "In crosses of a race of low productiveness and 
frequent sterility (race A) with a race of high pro- 
ductiveness (B) it has been found that a female of race 
A does not have her fecundity increased by mating with 

*"Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts and Sciences," XLI, 1906. 



178 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

a male of race B, and conversely, a female of race B does 
not have her fecundity diminished by a mating with a 
male of race A. Hence every male not actually sterile 
furnishes an abundance of functional spermatozoa. 

(3) "The cross-breds produced by the mating, B 
female with A male, are all of high productiveness. 

(4) 'The cross-breds produced by a mating A fe- 
male with B male are usually but not always of high 
productiveness. 

(5) 'The children of both sorts of cross-breds (see 
3 and 4) are some of high productiveness like race B, 
others of low^ productiveness like race A. 

(6) 'T.ow productiveness is inherited after the man- 
ner of a Mendelian recessive character in certain of the 
crosses made, skipping a generation and then reappear- 
ing. In other cases it has failed to reappear in genera- 
tion Fo, indicating its complete extinction by the cross. 
In a few cases it has failed to be dominated by high pro- 
ductiveness in generation Fi. In such cases the female 
parent has always been of race A. Hence low productive- 
ness (or sterility) of the female may be transmitted 
directly through the egg from mother to daughter, but 
only indirectly through the sperm, the character skip- 
ping a generation. 

(7) "A cross between two races, one inbred for 
thirty or more generations and of low productiveness, the 
other inbred for less than ten generations and of high 
productiveness, produced offspring like the latter in pro- 
ductiveness, but not superior to it. 

(8) 'The same two races crossed after an addi- 
tional year of inbreeding (about twenty generations) pro- 
duced offspring superior to either pure race in productive- 
ness." 

If it be true that inbreeding contains such possibili- 
ties of evil as have in the past been attributed to it, what 
then was the justification of the practice in the past and 



INBREEDING AND LINE BREEDING 



179 




180 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

to a lesser extent at the present time? It is generally 
believed that progeny whose parents 
Benefits of are related are more prepotent than 

Inbreeding. those resulting from the union of 

individuals of entirely dissimilar 
ancestry. This is the natural consequence of the pre- 
ponderance in inbred stock of the hereditary material 
and tendencies possessed by the individual with which 
the concentration begins : not only are units of the germ 
plasm numerically strongest but their similarity gives 
a certain number greater power than an equal number 
from a more varied ancestry. One of the difficulties 
in establishing a breed is the securing of individuals with 
the power to transmit the qualities of the various ani- 
mals that evidence the improvement. In almost every 
breed inbreeding has been practiced by the founders to 
secure that fixity of type that entitles a class of animals 
to be called a breed. The pedigree of Comet, a notably 
successful sire and sold for $5,000 at the dispersion sale 
of Charles Colling in 18 10, is an interesting study. 

PEDIGREE OF SHORT-HORN BULL COMET. 

f Fol jambe 

f Bolingbroke -, 

(Young Strawberry- 



Favorite (bull) < 

) [Fol jambe 

LPhoenix ^ 

(Favorite (cow) 

(Bolingbroke 
r Favorite (bull)....-^ 
) ( Phoenix 

Young Phoenix. .. .< i 

Phoenix I 

Favorite (cow) 



) -^ Fol jambe 

U 



Houseman* states that in 1839, seven years prior to 
the first registration, the Sovereign blood was in the 



*"Cattle Breeds and Management," p. 109. 



INBREEDING AND LINE BREEDING 



181 



Hereford ranks what Belvedere was in those of Short- 
horns, and the name of Hewer parallel with that of Bates. 

PEDIGREE OF HEREFORD BULL SOVEREIGN. 



Old Favorite 
292 



Young Welling- 
ton 294 



L Cherry 360, 



Countess 2 93 



Young Welling- 
ton 294 



[Cherry 361 



Old Wellington /Silver 358 



290. 



Silky 362, 



Old Wellington 
290 



Old Cherry 
402 



Old Wellington 
290 



1 

rWaxy 356 
[silk 404 
(Silver 358 

fW^axy 356 

(Silver 358 



Silky 362 



Waxy 356. 



Old Cherry 403. 



rWaxy 356 
tsilk 405 

(Old Wellington 

J, 290 

(Old Wellington 



Other notable breeding animals have not been so in- 
tensely bred, but among those that stand out now as hav- 
ing marked eras of special progress close breeding is 
the rule and not the exception. In the fixing of types 
within breeds similar facts are observable. Amos Cruick- 
shank, whether from choice or through compulsion, is 
known to have benefited greatly by the practice of in- 
breeding, though it must also be said that benefits were 
not all that can be attributed to the practice of that sys- 
tem in his herd. 

The American type of Hereford 

American Hereford is eminently more useful in America 

Breeding. than is the English type. The 

progress in the evolution of that 

breed in this country, while effected by the concerted 



182 



BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 



efforts of a number of breeders who have avoided con- 
tinued mating of close relationships, has been eminently 
advanced by Gudgell & Simpson under a system of in- 
breeding. The breeding of one of their animals that was 
junior champion female at the International in 1900 is 



PEDIGREE OF HEPwEFORD HEIFER MISCHIEF MAKER. 

r Anxiety 4th 
fDon Carlos ) 9904 

33734 Dowager 6th 

I 6932 



'Militant 
71755. 



Mischievous 
71758 



Beau Brummel 
51817 



Miss Charinini 
46850 



Lamplighter 
51834 



Miss Charmins 
11081 



Belle 24269 



North Pole 

8946 
Beau Ideal 8th 

9949 



f Anxiety 4 th 
fDon Carlos I 9904 

33734 Dowager 6th 

I 6932 

f Anxiety 4th 
Miss Charming I 9904 

3d 33751 ] Miss Chance 

I 9858 

(Anxiety 4th 
9904 
Dowager 6 th 
6932 

f North Pole 
Ladv Bird 3d I 8946 

31101 1 Lady Bertha 

I 4th 9861 

^^^""^ iPet 4th 10017 



Miss Charming 
4th 11081 



f Anxiety 4th 
I 9904 
1 Miss Chance 
I 9858 



A full sister of Mischief Maker 97907, Miss Caprice 
109725, was junior champion female at the 1901 Inter- 
national. The part played by Anxiety 4th in the mak- 
ing of the American Hereford and the prepotency of his 
descendants is commonly spoken of, but reference is sel- 



INBREEDING AND LINE BREEDING 183 

dom made to his own breeding as a probable explana- 
tion of his marked prepotency. 

PEDIGREE OF PREPOTENT HEREFORD BULL ANXIETY 4TH. 

Mercury 2241 



Anxiety 2238. 



.Gay lass 9905 



Longhorns 2239 
Helena 2240 



Lognhorns 2239. 



(Duchess 2242 
I DeCote 2243 
(Regina 2244 
[Mercury 2241 
(Duchess 2242 



>: I (DeCote 2242 

$ [Lofty 9906 ' 

^ (Fairy 9078 

Considerable publicity has justly been given the work 
of N. H. Gentry in his breeding of Berkshires. Though 
the matings of Mr. Gentry's ani- 
The Gentry mals have been by no means so close 

Berkshires. as those typified in the last tabula- 

tions he has not purchased a boar 
in twenty years, yet his large herd shows no evidence 
of impairment of size, vigor or fecundity, and has pro- 
duced an unusually large proportion of prizewinners. 

From the two types of instances presented it is evi- 
dent that inbreeding contains strong possibilities in either 
direction, and there must be a com- 
The Principle of mon principle underlying both sets 
Inbreeding. of occurrences. Major David Cas- 

tleman has said : "Inbreeding has 
produced some of the finest successes and some of the 
most dismal failures. We sometimes use it but feel that 
in so doing we are playing with fire." One assumption 
seems justified and that one is sufficient to explain the 
facts, namely: that the matter of kinship is of itself not 



184 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

the cause of the observed effects commonly attributed 
to inbreeding, but that the similarity of characters of 
parents constitutes the seat of the pronounced possibili- 
ties of inbreeding. In other words, we may say of the 
cases that have resulted unfavorably that we should look, 
not to the kinship of blood but to the kinship of defect. 
Similarly w^e may say of the successes of inbreeding, 
they are attributable, not to the kinship of blood but to 
the kinship of superiority. 

Knowing something of the behavior of the hereditary 
material, it is possible to explain the intensification of a 
good or a bad quality common to two parents in the 
same way as the development and accretion of minor 
congenital variations was explained in Chapter VI. As 
with the variations referred to, it must also be remem- 
bered that there may be in individuals inherited and re- 
cessive defects which come to notice only when intensi- 
fied and aided by sympathetic matings such as may be 
looked for in representatives of the same family. Most 
of the cases of decreased fecundity in farm animals at- 
tributed to too close matings are probably due to the in- 
tensification of existing weaknesses or hindrances to 
reproduction. 

It must be recognized however that there is a possi- 
bility of a measure of the same result from inbreed- 
ing in itself. It is considered 
Inbreeding, by zoologists that in the low- 
Per Se, est forms of life in which the 

union of two individuals is not es- 
sential to reproduction, that a greater vigor results 
from reproduction participated in by two individ- 



INBREEDING AND LINE BREEDING 185 

uals. In some forms individuals reproduce inde- 
pendently for a number of generations and then conju- 
gate. The mixing of material from separate sources ap- 
pears to add vigor much as is observed in cross-breeding 
of larger animals. Continued mating of animals re- 
tricted to a common descent may then of itself dimin- 
ish the vitality of the stock. Color is given this idea by 
the unusual vigor sometimes apparently present in the 
offspring of two pure-bred parents of different breeds. 
Such a cross is the extreme opposite of close mating. 
The same principle obtains in plants propagated by vege- 
tative methods. Prof. Cook* states : 'The weakened 
vitality of old varieties of potatoes or sugar cane may 
be compared with the gradual weakening of aged trees 
or of aged men. There is a slackening of the organic 
energies which can be quickened only by new conjuga- 
tions." It is possible in animals to so restrict and con- 
centrate the ancestral hereditary material as to render 
new conjugations imperative. Pronounced injury from 
inbreeding fully robust animals would only come however 
from long continuation of the practice as shown in Bos' 
experiment cited earlier in this chapter. On the other 
hand it is possible to so dilute and dissipate the heritage 
of good as to lose what generations of careful breeding 

have built into the stock. It has 

Risk in been said that in the case of some 

Out-hr ceding. . of our carefully bred families of 

stock, the paramount question is 
not how much inbreeding is safe, but rather, how much 
outbreeding can be permitted? 

*Bureau of Plant Industry, Bui. No. 146, page 13. 



186 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

As stated, however, most of the decreased fecundity 
of farm animals properly attributed to close matings must 
be regarded as the result of the intensification of exist- 
ing tendencies rather than the lack of new conjugations. 
Such tendencies present in a minor degree may be 
strengthened into serious defects by close breeding just 
as may any other bad feature, or as a useful quality may 
be accentuated and transmitted more strongly by judi- 
cious limitation of descent. Sterility that is the out- 
come of inbreeding must not be regarded as a single 
characteristic separately transmitted as such. It is doubt- 
less the result of the accumulation or intensification of a 
number of conditions bearing unfavorably upon repro- 
duction but not previously so strong or so combined as 
to constitute effective obstacles to breeding. Sterility 
produced by inbreeding marks the limit, and recovery 
can be effected only if parents or ancestors still remain 
to permit a retracing of the course pursued to a point 
of greater fecundity. 

Success or failure with inbreeding is then clearly de- 
pendent upon selection. Ability to select necessitates not 
only well trained powers of obser- 
When To vation and good judgment, but also 

Inhreed. an intimate knowledge of the indi- 

viduality and ancestry of all the 
animals in which the breeder is directly or indirectly inter- 
ested. An examination of the personal qualities and the 
methods of those men who have successfully practiced 
inbreeding will reveal in every instance the fact that 
they were thorough students of the individuality of every 
one of their animals and in no cases allowed superior 



INBREEDING AND LINE BREEDING 187 

lineage to blind them to the presence or seriousness of an 
undesirable quality or character. Inbreeding has not been 
practiced by any successful breeder at the commencement 
of his operations. The exercise of the abilities of the 
masters in the art has resulted in their attaining a meas- 
ure of success that gives them within their own herds 
animals superior to any that can be purchased. Any 
present-day breeder who really reaches such a position 
cannot afford to lightly decide to set his face unalter- 
ably against inbreeding. 

In comparing modern breeders with those of earlier 
times one other factor must be regarded. Popularity of 
strong strains and families within each of the breeds has 
given members and descendants thereof wide dissemina- 
tion, and it is difficult to procure within these old breeds 
good animals so nearly unrelated and free from common 
tendencies as in earlier days. The fact that Scotch 
Short-horns were more closely bred than were English 
Here fords accounts for the present greater aversion of 
Short-horn breeders to close matings. Some advocates 
of inbreeding would seem to suggest that selection be 
based solely on descent. So long as animals are indi- 
vidually adapted to each other and there is no common 
weakness in their lineage, a degree of common relation- 
ship to superior animals is not a detriment but an advan- 
tage. Line breeding, as defined on page i68, permits 
concentration of type by selection from numerous de- 
scendants of a good individual and may retain the best 
features of that individual without the concentration of 
blood that may cause some minor weakness to be intensi- 
fied into serious ones. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

MENDEL'S LAW. 

The best farm animals of today are much better suited 
to present needs than the most popular types of the mid- 
dle of the nineteenth century. For the most part the 
present types serve existing demands with greater satis- 
faction than was experienced by stockmen working with 
the best animals obtainable for the conditions of some 
decades ago. It is also not improbable that should con- 
ditions of use and rearing of fifty years ago again become 
operative that some of our prized animals might readily 
be discarded for the types of their early progenitors. 
The breeders of each age and each area of country retain 
those animals best able to do and give what is then and 
there demanded of them. In some cases breeders have 
perpetuated and intensified tendencies and characters that 
seemed to be of advantage in rearing or to give added 
value when selling, but sometimes selling value has been 
obtained at the expense of true economy of production 
as is evidenced in numerous discussions of size and bone, 
particularly in swine. Low cost of production has also 
been offset by reduced value as evidenced by market 
discriminations against animals very large and growthy 
but coarse and rough. 

What changes in animal types the market demands 
ass) 



Mendel's law 189 

and farming practices of the future may necessitate can 

not be foretold. The Hmit of im- 

Brccding in provement, or more properly of 

the Future, adaptation to artificial requirements, 

lies only in the effects of selection 

for characters that are opposed to growth, health, or the 

natural exercise of powers of reproduction. 

In discussions up to this point, selection with its essen- 
tial accompaniments has been prescribed as the basis of 
progress toward any desired stand- 
Beginnings of ard. This however .assumes the 
New Characters, existence somewhere of the com- 
ponent characteristics of the animal 
it is desired to produce and to multiply. If we have a 
starting point of even a small variation toward what is 
desired, the cumulative effects of selection of the fit and 
the rejection of the unfit will render possible the prac- 
tical development of everything having an existing basis. 
Artificial selection accomplishes for artificial needs what 
natural selection adapts to natural requirements. In 
each case the law of the "survival of the fittest" ob- 
tains. But how should it be if there developed a need for 
animals with characters not found in any of their kind? 
"Natural selection may explain the survival of the fit- 
test but it cannot explain the arrival of fittest."* 

The first hornless pure Short- 

Mutation. horn of which we have knowledge 

was not the outcome of generations 

of gradually declining horn growth. It appeared suddenly 

without apparent reason and with strength to impress 

*Thomson, "Heredity," p. 98. 



190 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

its offspring with its own peculiarity. Such an unusual 
character appearing without intermediate stages between 
itself and the usual form is called a mutation and the indi- 
vidual exhibiting the mutation a mutant. True mutants 
are also referred to as sports or freaks. A horse with 
a very long and distinctly curly coat would be a mutant 
if it were certain that it was not a case of reversion. 
Castle has bred a strain of guinea pigs that uniformly 
shows four toes on each hind foot, one more than the 
usual number. The start consisted of one with an im- 
perfectly developed fourth toe. 

Polydacfylous None of this animal's ancestors had 

Guinea Pigs. been known to show even any rudi- 

mentary resemblance to an extra 
toe. Illustrations of animal mutations of practical util- 
ity are not easy to suggest. The question of mutations 
has been studied quite thoroughly in plants where it 
seems to have greater practical possibilities. The appli- 
cation of the principle has been so sanguinely commended 
to animal breeders by persons conversant with its use in 
plants that a review of the matter in that field is of more 
than passing interest. 

There had existed for some time a growing dissatis- 
faction with the necessity of explaining the origin of 
all species and varieties of plants 
De Vrics' by the very slow and gradual opera- 

Expcriments. tion of natural selection among 

variations of minor degree. It was 

felt that some varieties had come into existence more 

quickly than was probable by this method. De Vries, 

professor of botany in the University of Amsterdam, had 



mexdel's law 191 

observed distinct changes in plants occurring spontane- 
ously, or at least with no apparent previous tendency in 
the same direction.* This investigator undertook to se- 
cure the double flowered character in the cultivated va- 
riety of the corn marigold (Chrysanthemum grandiflo- 
rum). This plant averaged twenty-one ray florets to a 
flower, while the wild form averaged only thirteen. The 
seeds of six plants were planted separately and in five of 
the six groups there was a lack of constancy to the twenty- 
one floret type and consequently only seeds from the 
sixth group were retained. In 1896 De Vries found in 
the progeny of one of this group a plant with two sec- 
ondary heads, having twenty-two florets, the terminal 
heads still showing twenty-one. Succeeding generations 
from this plant showed great tendency toward an in- 
creased number of florets, forty-eight being reached in 
1898 and sixty-six in 1899. Late in the same season 
three secondary heads were found with florets on the 
central part of the flower. This was accepted as the 
arrival of the hoped for mutation. Plants grown from 
seeds from those heads showed 100 ray florets and 
200 in the next generation, a completely double-headed 
flower. Although the increase in the number of marginal 
florets was gradual, it may be said that the true double- 
flowering character appeared spontaneously though it 
would seem to have been connected with the previous 
selection. 

The cause of the origin of such a mutation is not sug- 
gested by the botanist. Manifestly it was not the prod- 
uct of environment. The nearest approach to a satis- 

*DeVries, "Species and Varieties, their origin by Mutation." 



192 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

factory understanding lies in the reference of such oc- 
currences to the maze of possibiH- 
Causc of ties in the combination of the 

Mutation. chromatic elements of the repro- 

ductive cells as discussed in Chap- 
ter VI. In more recent years we have received accounts 
of the production of a new color in plants by the injection 
of solutions of mineral substances into developing ovules.* 
Subsequent attempts to secure such results have proved 
failures. Even were such procedure practical in plants 
it would not be so in animals. The introduction of any 
new transmissible element into the hereditary material 
is inconceivable in view of what is known of that sub- 
stance. We are again reminded of the limitations of 
our knowledge of the ultimate source and nature of the 
chromatin bodies. Procurement of mutations is wholly 
dependent upon chance and the capacity of the breeder 
to detect them. The distinction between mutations and 
variations is really one of degree. It will doubtless be 
more helpful to think of future modifications of animal 
form as having their beginning in minor variations oc- 
curring without design and offering opportunities to those 
best fitted to recognize and utilize them. Any new fea- 
ture promising value, no matter how little developed, 
when favored by an encouraging environment and the 
most careful selection, may in course of time be brought 
up to a useful degree. However, should mutations of 
pronounced utility present themselves they may be utilized 
even if found in inferior stock, as has been done in 
forming our single standard breeds of polled cattle. 

*McDoug-al: "Science," Jan. 24, 190S. 



Mendel's law 




194 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

Each of the breeds of Hve stock, even of those kept 
for the same purpose, is characterized by special features 
of excellence. Of course breeders 
Cross Breeding of each of the competing breeds, 
for New Characters, while retaining the admitted supe- 
riorities of their own stock, try also 
to secure as much as possible of the pronounced good 
features of their rivals. Not infrequently the crossing 
of established breeds is resorted to in the hope of com- 
bining the good features on both sides. Bearing in 
mind that every quality, desirable or undesirable, is rep- 
resented in the hereditary material, regard must be had 
for the fact that in a cross there is no virtue that can 
obscure the weaknesses. These must be expected with 
the rest and are just as likely to be contributed from 
both sides as are the good traits. The crossing of breeds 
is sometimes favored as a means of securing new varia- 
tions and new forms. The mixture of hereditary mate- 
rial from two dissimilar sources, each of which has 
been rendered pure to its usual properties and at no 
point allowed to receive any vestige of a taint from the 
other, may yield unusual results. Such procedure is 
quite practical among plants where many random trials 
are practicable even if only one in thousands yields any- 
thing of promise, and it is by crossing that Mr. Burbank 
has secured some of his more useful plant creations. 

The making of a cross cannot be expected to origi- 
nate any new character; yet the breaking up of forces 
among old tendencies may so balance and engage one 
another as to give opportunity for previously dormant 
and restrained possibilities to evidence themselves. 



Mendel's law 195 

Crosses sometimes show likenesses to very remote par- 
ents, which Hkenesses really constitute reversions as ex- 
emplified in the case of a cross-bred (Hereford-Short- 
horn) bull bred to a pure Angus cow. The offspring 
was creamy white in color with black muzzle and black 
hair in the ears, features of the very early native British 
cattle.* In the main, however, the most that can be 
looked for in crossing is a fortuitous combination of ex- 
isting characters such as is evidenced in the offspring of 
a Hereford and Angus cross which exhibits the polled 
head and black body together with the white face. The 
Oxford breed of sheep was made by selections from 
Hampshire and Cotswold crosses, and is the only breed 
of consequence that has resulted from crossing old estab- 
lished breeds. 

The demonstration of the actual occurrence of muta- 
tions as sudden and considerable departures from the 
usual order of things encouraged much hopeful specula- 
tion as to changes of magnitude the breeders of the com- 
ing years might effect. It may be repeated that the hopes 
of accomplishment among animals was based on a some- 
what over-drawn analogy between the plant and animal 
kingdoms, especially in economic aspects. Even more 
stirring than the mutation theory was the announcement 
at about the same time of the discovery of Mendel's law. 

The discovery of the operation of 
Mendel. this law or principle was announced 

almost simultaneously in 1900 by 
De Vries, Correns and Tschermak. It was soon learned 
that similar work had been done and similar conclusions 



*Thomson, "Heredity," p. 378. 



196 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

published in 1865 by Gregory Mendel, a monk in an 
Austrian monastery at Briinn. In view of the priority 
of Mendel's work and announcements his name is al- 
W'ays used to designate this interesting phenomenon. 
Mendel's law is of special interest in conjunction w^ith 
mutations as suggesting practical procedures in their per- 
petuation. It also throws some light on the behavior 
in transmission of existing characters, and is therefore 
worthy of careful study. 

Mendel w^as also a botanist, and the experiments which 
led up to his discovery were conducted with the common 
sweet pea. The stockman's interest in Mendelism may be 
better discussed after the law has been explained in 
its applications to the plants with which its discoverer 
worked. The law as set forth by Mendel does not lend 
itself to terse statements and it will therefore be more 
satisfactory to outline the experiments in their natural 
order. In 1857 Mendel planned and inaugurated the ex- 
periments which at the end of eight years justified such 

important conclusions.* Two of the 

Menders varieties of peas selected repre- 

Experhnents. sented extremes in regard to length 

of stems, the i:)lants of one uni- 
formly having stems measuring from 6 to 7 feet in 
length, while in the other the range was limited with 
equal uniformity to between 9 and 18 inches. These 
two varieties were crossed, and when the resulting seeds 
were planted the following season it was found that all 
of the plants had stems fully equal in length to those of 
the longer stemmed parents. These cross-bred plants 



=Bateson: "Menders Principles of Heredity." 



Mendel's law 197 

while not hybrids in the true sense are erroneously so 
designated for convenience. The chromatin representing 
the short stem was of course present in the hybrid plants 
but had not asserted itself, and the short stem character 
in this case is therefore termed recessive and the lone- 
stem character dominant. Those hybrid long-stemmed 
plants were pollinated exclusively by pollen from plants 
of their own group. In the third season there were 
reared as the progeny of hybrid parents on both sides 
1,064 plants. Of this number about one-fourth, or 2jy, 
had the short-stem character of their grandparent which 
had been recessive in the parent, the remaining three- 
fourths, or 787, all had long stems. This was a very sug- 
gestive fact and Mendel proceeded to investigate the 
breeding qualities of these two groups. The flowers of 
each plant were fertilized exclusively by pollen from plants 
of their own kind. Six other similar experiments were 
carried on simultaneously with such characters as posi- 
tion of flowers, form of pods, and form of seeds. 

As it was impracticable to breed from every plant 
reared, 100 plants were selected from each of the two 
groups preserved from the long and short-stemmed hybrid 
lot and their seeds were planted the following season. 
The progeny of the short-stem plants exhibited short 
stems exclusively. Of the 100 representative long-stem- 
med plants it was found that 28 produced only long 
stems, while 72 produced some of each kind. This pro- 
portion is approximately three to one, but applying the 
actual figures to the whole number it shows that the 
1,064 plants really comprised 2yy capable of producing 
only short stems; 567 capable of producing either, and 



198 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

220 capable of producing only long stems. Each of the 
two smaller groups continued to reproduce their own 
kind exclusively through succeeding generations as long 
as bred within their own groups. Further work with 
the larger and unstable group, however, showed that it 
behaved exactly as did the original hybrids giving off 
one- fourth of its number to produce only long stems, an- 
other fourth for short stems, and the half of hybrid char- 
acter to again break up into the three kinds. 

First year. — Long and short stems crossed. 

Second year. — Hybrid plants raised from seed pro- 
duced the first year ; allowed to fertilize each other. 

Third year. — Seeds produced the second year planted 
and 1,064 plants reared; of these, 2"]-] had short stems 
and 787 long stems; plants of each group fertilized by 
their own kind. 

Fourth year. — Two groups of the third year were 
tested; short-stem group found to produce its own kind 
exclusively; of the larger group 220 were found to be 
pure to the long type, while the seeds of the other 567 
produced both long and short stems. 

Fifth year. — Seeds planted from offspring of each 
of three groups revealed in previous season. The off- 
spring of the pure long and pure short groups bred true. 
The offspring of the 567 plants producing mixed prog- 
eny, breaking up into 142 short-stem plants and 425 
with long stems. On further test those two groups prove 
to behave exactly like the two groups of the third year. 

Knowing the breeding records of the various groups, 
the divisions of the original number may be arranged 
so as to show their relationship. 



MENDEL'S LAW 199 

It must ])c borne in mind that while the plants pure to 
the recessive short-stem character in generation two were 
separable as soon as they appeared, the 220 with no tend- 
ency to short stems could be separated from the larger 
groups remaining mixed only by examination of the 
plants grown from their seed. In all instances plants 
were fertilized by others of their kind. 

FOUR GENERATIONS OF CROSS-BRED PEAS. 

Generation 1. Generation 2. Generation 3. Generation 4. 

277 pure short stems in-] 

ter-bred produce short (-pure short pure short. 

stems exclusively. J 

ri42 pure short. . .pure short. 

Hybrids: 567 hybrids: inter-bred: ] ( 71 pure short. 

All long stems: produce both long and<^ 283 hybrids -^ 141 hybrids. 

inter-bred; short. j (_ 71 pure long. 

Ll42 pure long.... pure long. 
'b'rVp"r^o1iuSyo"i?;:}P-elong pure long. 

The discovery thus made was that hybrid parents 
produce offspring of which one-half are again hybrid 
while one-quarter are pure to each 
Mendel's"^ of the original parent forms. The 

Law. figures 2yy, 567 and 220 are only 

approximately in the proportion of 
I, 2 and I, but the entire numbers of offspring could 
not be tested and the figures used represent the rather 
unfair proportions derived from the actual test groups. 
It is not claimed that the proportions will occur with ex- 
actness except in very large numbers, although the sum- 
mary of all Mendel's tests shows a very close adherence 
to the set proportions. From a single individual pos- 
sessing a desired character or mutation that obeys Men- 

*A translation of Mendel's original papers appears in Bateson's 
"Mendel's Principles of Heredity." 



200 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

del's law it would be possible in time to procure a large 
number of others equally strong in the same character. 
As will readily be seen, however, progress would be 
much more rapid in dealing with characters that are re- 
cessive since they may be selected as soon as found in the 
second generation from the cross without awaiting the 
breeding test that is necessary to segregate pure domi- 
nants from hybrids with the dominant character. Also 
in practice the hybrids can be rebred to the parent and 
thus one-half the offspring wnll possess the parental char- 
acter. Many characters are not Mendelian and so do 
not remain distinct but mix with their opposites. Men- 
delian or non-Mendelian characters can only be deter- 
mined as such by test. 

At first thought the occurrence of the Mendelian pro- 
portions seems to be entirely out of line with all ordinary 

procedures of nature; however, a 

Hozv Mendelian very plausible explanation is at 

Proportions Occur, hand. In the experiment referred 

to for the purpose of explaining the 
law it was seen that short-stemmed plants bred to long- 
stemmed ones produced hyl:)rids, all with long stems. 
The hereditary element for the short stem was restrained 
from showing itself but must necessarily have been pres- 
ent in the germ cell material of the hybrid. It manifests 
itself in the production of 25 per cent of the offspring of 
the hybrids that contain no long-stem material, as is 
shown by the fact that they and all descendants remain 
true to the short-stem character. The hereditary ma- 
terial contained in the reproductive organs of a hybrid 
individual must contain elements for both characters; 



Mendel's law 201 

whether each chromosome received from the long- 
stemmed parent contains the element for that character 
or whether it resides only in a single chromosome, our 
knowledge of those bodies will not permit us to con- 
jecture. However that may be, the occurrences strongly 
suggest that each germ cell produced by a hybrid parent 
represents only one of the characters. If this be true, 
and inasmuch as the stock of hereditary material is equal- 
ly supplied with both kinds, then the number of germ 
cells of one kind will be the same as for the other. Speak- 
ing only in regard to this single character, it will now 
be seen that only two kinds of ova can be produced, those 
with the element for short stems and those for long stems. 
The same is true of the spermatozoa. Any ovum that 
is fertilized is as likely to be of one kind as of the other. 
Any particular spermatozoon sharing in fertilization has 
also equal probabilities of having the long or the short- 
stem element. 



1 SS PURE SHORT 

2 LS HYBRID 

1 LL PURE LONG 



FIG. 12— OCCURRENCE OF MENDELIAN PROPORTIONS. 

In mating a female and a male hybrid four cases may 
arise, as shown in the diagram. Fig. 12: Case i. — The 
ovum S is the one presented and is fertilized by the 
spermatozoon S ; the progeny SS, can produce only short 
stems so long as bred to others like itself. Case 2. — ^It is 
equally likely that the ovum S would be fertilized by 
the spermatozoon L, giving LS, a hybrid progeny which 




202 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

like his hybrid parents might produce either kind of germ 
cells. Case 3. — It is equally likely that the ovum pre- 
sented would be of the L type; if so and fertilized by 
spermatozoon S another hybrid offspring would result. 
Case 4. — An L ovum joined by an L spermatozoon would 
produce an offspring pure to the long type. The chances 
for SS, purity of short stems, are the same as for the op- 
posite, while the probability of LS, the hybrid form, 
is twice as great as for either of the pure forms. It is 
therefore not surprising that in a considerable number 
of cases the proportions of i, 2 and i should appear. 
On this basis the cause of the Mendelian proportions is 
apparent. 

Botanists usually speak of germ cells as gametes. 

This explanation of Mendelism assumes the purity of 

the gametes to a single character. 

Purify of Whether the gametes are actually 

Gametes. pure in one character or whether 

they contain a predominating 

amount from one of the parents cannot be stated. The 

facts would suggest the former and that perhaps the 

representation of one parental character is conveyed only 

in a single chromosome.* 

Before discussing Mendelism among animals it will 

be of value to gain a clear idea of unit characters. It is 

fully established that some animal 

Mendelism characters follow Mendel's law in 

in Animals. transmission. Long-haired and 

short-haired guinea pigs mated in 

the experiments of Professor Castlef gave progeny with 

*Castle: "Carnegie Institution," XLI, 1906. 
t "Proceedings American Breeders' Association," Vol. I. 



MENDEL^S LAW 203 

the short-haired character dominant. The progeny of 
these hybrids consisted of twelve short-haired guinea 
pigs to four with long hair, the recessive character. This 
is the expected Mendelian proportions, 3 to i, for the 
first generation from hybrid stock. The twelve when 
tested were found to contain four that bred true to short- 
ness of hair and eight still producing mixed progeny. 
The same results were apparent in crossing albinos and 
colored guinea pigs in the same experiment, the colored 
coat character being dominant over the albino condi- 
tion. The two characters wxre studied in the same ani- 
mals. Starting with long-haired albinos and short-haired 
pigmented or colored animals, sixteen guinea pigs were 
reared from the hybrid stock. These sixteen comprised 
four kinds, as follows : 

( 9 short-haired and pigmented-.^. 
12 short hair. . . . -] ^~~~^12 pigmented. 

( 3 short-haired and albino 




{3 long-haired and pigmented- 
^^,^-^4 albino. 
1 long - haired and albino 

Each of the groups of twelve shown on left and right, 
on further test was found to be made up of four pures 
and eight hybrids. 

The results of this experiment illustrate the mean- 
ing of the term unit characters. It is apparent that 
there was no relation between the 
Unit length of hair and its color; each 

Characters. was transmitted entirely indepen- 

dent of the other. The length of 
hair is therefore one unit character, while the color of 
hair is another. 

This experiment also illustrates the practical bearing 



204 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

of another point. If long coats and albinism were in- 
frequently found and were pre- 
Application of f erred it would be possible to in- 
Mendcrs Lazi\ crease the number of individuals 
pure to either character to one- 
fourth the whole number that the second generation 
might comprise. These two characters being recessive 
could easily be recognized in the individuals pure to 
them. Should it be the dominants that were sought 
for, a breeding test would be necessary to isolate them 
from the hybrid forms. Among plants the rearing and 
preservation of such numbers of individuals may be at- 
tempted even in a commercial enterprise. Among larger 
animals however such practice would be difficult even 
in large experimental work ; though should it be possible, 
accomplishments of considerable value might reasonably 
be hoped for. Animals with characters known to be 
Mendelian may perhaps be handled to some satisfac- 
tion so long as it is possible to base selections com- 
pletely upon the one specific character. Conditions may 
be imagined under which such a course would be prac- 
ticable but are not likely to arise. 

If it were sought to combine in the same animal two 
unit characters that were also Mendelian, one in sixteen 
of the second generation could be expected with that 
combination as is seen in the case of the long-haired 
albino guinea pig representing the fourth group shown 
on page 203. If a combination of dominant unit char- 
acters were desired the detection of the individual of 
that class would of course be more difficult. 

Many features of comb and plumage of poultry have 



MENDEL S LAW 



205 




206 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

been shown to be inherited in accordance with Mendel's 
law.* The waltzing habit in a variety of fancy mice has 
been shown to be a Mendelian recessive. This was found 
to be associated with a peculiar lack of development of 
the semi-circular canal of the ear which supposedly ac- 
counts for the waltzing movement. It has been sug- 
gested that the pacing gait in horses may be a Mendelian 
unit character. So far however this gait has not been 
found to be uniformly associated with any physical pecu- 
liarity and the manner of its appearance does not indi- 
cate that it can be regarded as Mendelian. Profes- 
sor Spillman has presented figures which seem to 
show that the hornless character when appearing in 
horned breeds of cattle is a Mendelian recessive. Breed- 
ers of blue Andalusian fowls experience great difficulty 
in breeding the desired color. Birds of the desired colors 
when mated produce numbers of black, blue and white 
in proportions of i, 2 and i. The blue is regarded as the 
hybrid though how it splits up into the two colors while 
they appear to blend in development is not clear. Data 
has been presented strongly supporting the idea that red 
and white colors in Short-horn cattle are Mendelian char- 
acters, f If such be the case, however, neither can be 
regarded as dominant since the roan hybrid exhibits both 
colors. 

All the animal characteristics 

Limitations that have been mentioned as illus- 

. of Mcndclisin. trating unit characters following 

Mendel's law are external ones and 

of only secondary importance in breeding. Where any 

*"Inheritance in Poultry," C. B. Davenport. 
f'Breeder's Gazette," July 15, 1908. 



Mendel's law 207 

of them are desired and can be selected for without 
interfering with more essential features some advan- 
tage may be gained. Selection based solely on a single 
external character is entirely impracticable in regular 
breeding. Valuable mutations have been perpetuated 
and added to existing types in a comparatively short 
time by breeders who had no acquaintance with Mendel's 
work, as is shown in our double-standard Polled Dur- 
hams. It does not seem that the time required for per- 
fection of the Polled Durhams was any greater than it 
would have been if the breeders had sought to utilize a 
knowledge of Mendelism wdiile regarding a polled head 
as only one of many essentials. Some advantage would 
have been afforded by familiarity with the law in the 
certainty regarding what the results would be. 

While length and color of hair are separate unit char- 
acters in guinea pigs, it would seem the length and fine- 
ness of wool fibres may be unit and 
Non-McndcUan Mendelian characters. This, how- 
Charactcrs. ever, is not true of the Cheviot- 

Leicester cross and, as was stated, 
the Oxford Down represents and transmits a blend of two 
distinct types. Probably one of the most interesting 
things about Mendelism is the evidence that the animal 
body represents a vast number of unit characters which 
may or may not be transmitted in definite proportions. 
Investigators have not attempted to determine unit char- 
acters of the body, though it has been suggested that the 
width of hindquarters of beef cattle is a unit character.* 
It has occurred to the author that the size of the Percheron 



♦"Proceedings American Breeders' Association," Vol. 4, pag-e 
325. 



208 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

foot may be transmitted as a dominant unit character 
and also that pecuhar "typey" head of the Berkshire may 
be a Mendehan unit character. No data have been col- 
lected on these points. Additions to our knowledge of 

what are unit characters of the body 

Need of are not likely to come through 

Breeders' Records, planned experiments. They are 

more likely to come through retro- 
spective study of records of regualr breeders who record 
and preserve full data regarding the individual peculiari- 
ties of each animal reared or used in breeding. Mendel- 
ism also suggests the value of careful inquiry regarding 
individuality of ancestors, to guard against the existence 
of undesirable characters that cannot be recognized be- 
cause recessive but which might reappear. 

x\lthough the results of Mendel's work have been 
freely spoken of as promising to revolutionize practical 
breeding it now seems that the matter is still chiefly of 
scientific interest. The breeder may aid the scientist 
by preservation of records that will facilitate this study 
and in turn the scientist may then be able to make sug- 
gestions of possible application in breeding. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

BREED RELATIONS. 

A breed of live stock is not of itself an end but a 
means to an end. That end is the yielding of a product 
of maximum value at a minimum 
The Place cost. The founders of our existing 

of Breeds. breeds did not set out with a pur- 

pose of establishing breeds of ani- 
mals. "^ Who would be more astonished to learn the 
number of white faced cattle in western America than 
would John Hewer ? The makers of our breeds aimed in 
each case to raise such animals as would be more profit- 
able under the conditions of rearino-, feeding- and selline- 
which prevailed in their respective localities. It was 
when their stock had demonstrated extraordinarv merit in 
the eyes of the buyers that the increase was in demand for 
use as breeders on other farms and in other localities 
where the stockmen were not content to repeat for them- 
selves the slow and studied steps to improvement. With 
the broadening demand in their home countries and the 
active foreign trade, the registration of pedigrees with 
its attendant features of good and evil became a neces- 
sity. 

We are often prone to measure the ability of our pres- 
ent breeders by the resemblance of their stock to that 

*See Darwin. "Animals and Plants Under Domestication," Ed. 
2, Vol I, page 96. 

(209) 



210 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

of earlier masters of renown to whose work the lapse 
of time has given a clear perspective view. That stand- 
ard is a false one. Those breeders 
Evolution achieved renown through seeing the 

of Types. peculiar needs of their times and 

localities. They produced such 
types and fixed such characters as progressing agriculture 
and evolving markets demanded, and the only fair way 
to appraise our present-day types is by considering the 
degree to which they satisfy the market and, wdiat is 
of equal importance, the cost of their rearing and fin- 
ishing in those sections to which their peculiar and dis- 
tinctive features best adapt them. In many cases the 
most useful types of to-day are radically different from 
those of two decades ago. Evolution is continuous, 
both in our markets and in our systems of cropping and 
feeding. Since we cannot see far ahead we are safest in 
setting our standards fully abreast of the times and being 
thereby best prepared to make such modifications as the 
future may necessitate. 

While all the users of draft horses require many fun- 
damental points in common their varying classes of serv- 
ice and their dissimilar ideas of in- 
Nced for dications of efficiency and durabil- 

Numerous Breeds, ity give outlets for the array of 
good types represented in several 
breeds. While all dairy sections aim at the economical 
production of milk solids, the demand in some cases 
makes fat the paramount constituent, solids not fat in 
others, and in other instances natural color is empha- 
sized. Some soils produce digestible animal nutrients 



BREED RELATIONS 211 

more satisfactorily in coarse and bulky feeds than in con- 
centrated forms. The first section necessitates the use of 
large strong cows developed for and adapted to such con- 
ditions. Thus even in milk production a variety of farm 
conditions and of consumer's demands require several 
sorts of animals. The same is true of beef cattle, sheep 
and swine. When we except wool, the demands the mar- 
kets make on our meat-producing breeds are less varied 
than with dairy stock, though the range of conditions 
governing rearing and finishing is much wider. 

In European countries there is much of uniformity in 
the stock of a particular locality. On each of the many 

types of soils subject to a common 

Distribution climate the farmers appear to have 

of Breeds. found what marketable articles they 

can produce especially well. In 
some instances it is early lambs, in others mature mut- 
tons; or again it may be baby beef, finished bullocks, or 
store or feeding stock. General agreement as to the ob- 
ject and method of the stockman has also resulted in 
agreement as to the type and breed of animal best adapted 
to the special requirements. 

Fortunately or unfortunately our American importers 
seem to have been less unanimous than the Britons them- 
selves in their estimates of the proper spheres for the 
various breeds. One has pinned his faith and his repu- 
tation to one breed for his native locality, while his 
neighbor is equally assured that another breed is pecu- 
liarly adapted to the same channel of usefulness. Recog- 
nizing the superiority of any breed over no breed, all 
have been eagerly received and opportunity and un- 



212 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

Studied impressions have had more to do with choice of 
breeds than has conviction derived from acquaintance 
with the objects and requirements by which the breed- 
makers were guided in the selection of material for their 
accomplishment. Thus we have owners of different 
breeds of the same class of stock working toward a 
common end, and different owners of the same breed 
building on divergent lines. That individuality and strain 
are of greater importance than breed is nowhere so true 
as in America. 

It seems reasonable to suppose that with our country 
becoming more fully occupied and our agricultural prac- 
tices assuming a more stable aspect the time will come 
when the live stock in each community will be less va- 
ried within small areas that we now find it. On most of 
the farms located in the area of a single type of soil, and 
tributary to a few principal markets, we may expect that 
all animals entering into commerce will leave the farm 
at approximately the same age and in much the same 
condition. If such should be the case the methods of 
rearing and feeding within that vicinity will have more 
in common. Common interests will then have as their 
result the maintenance of a common type of animals espe- 
cially well fitted to satisfy their particular markets and 
possessed of the qualities to render them especially prof- 
itable to their raisers. For the great variety of condi- 
tions found in so large a country as the United States 
many types are needed. Here capacity to mature quickly 
on forced feeding is paramount ; there, a disposition to 
graze and be less dependent on feeding is more desirable, 
while again there will doubtless always be some sections 



BREED RELATIONS 



213 




214 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

that will not finish meat-producing stock but wish to raise 
what will breed most freely and satisfy distant farm- 
ers who are fatteners and not growers of stock. 

The greatest uniformity in farming and feeding prac- 
tices may give each breed full possession of its spe- 
cial area as it has in England where the breeds were de- 
veloped to answer recognized needs. Should there be 
such a condition it might greatly reduce some items of 
expense of production ; instead of neighborly rivalry and 
disagreement as to the best means of reaching a com- 
mon purpose such as now obtains through the variety of 
types and breeds in the same locality, there might be part- 
nerships and co-operation in the purchase and use of sires 
and nearer markets for surplus breeding stock. Of re- 
cent years a good deal has been done in Wisconsin and 
Michigan in the organization of community breeding 

societies. A number of breeders 

Conimunity in a community pledge themselves 

Breeding, to adopt the same breed of cattle. 

They thereby insure the production 
of a sufificiently large number of surplus stock to attract 
buyers to them when making purchases. Even if mem- 
bers of the society are breeding only for the market the 
advantages and economies resulting from the co-operative 
purchase and use of the best sires the breed affords amply 
justify the maintenance of the society. 

Our state and national and international live stock 
fairs and expositions are our greatest educational factors 
in animal husbandry. Their first service is to fully ac- 
quaint people with the common requirements of all ac- 
ceptable market animals. Of necessity the making of 



BREED RELATIONS 215 

awards must relate more to merit of the finished product 
than to evidences of value in the 
Value of making of large and economical 

Shows. gains. This is true even in the 

breeding classes, because the former 
is more easily discernible than the latter and its require- 
ments are largely common to animals produced in all 
sections. Then too, should a judge attempt to exercise 
his opinion to indicate which class of animals is most 
profitable to their raisers, he must have in mind some 
particular set of conditions and system of rearing. In a 
local show a well qualified judge might properly follow 
such a course; but in a ring of 
Basis of exhibits gathered from a half- 

Azvards. dozen or more states he would do 

justice to only a fraction of the 
exhibitors and on-lookers. 

The value of exhibiting for purposes of education 
and stimulation is especially shown by our breeders of 
trotting horses and dairy cattle. Breeders of these 
classes of stock recognize clearly that actual tests of merit 
in comparison with unvarying standards — the watch and 
the scales — while not the sole guides are nevertheless 
much more useful than comparison with ideals of one, 
two or three men, be they ever so capable and expe- 
rienced. In spite of the fact that showring awards in 
these breeders are of only secondary importance to the 
breeders in their selections, the promotion of interest 
and study resulting from the shows give such events a 
position of greatest importance among the many meth- 
ods for the advancement of animal husbandry. The 



216 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

data afforded breeders of speed horses and dairy stock 

are chiefly valuable as showing which individuals and 

combination of strains breed high efliciency with the 

greatest regularity. Records alone 

Advanced cannot dictate how animals should 

Registration. be mated. Breeders of draft horses 
and of meat-producing stock rec- 
ognize the desirability of some form of advanced reg- 
istry or means of measuring and recording the merit 
of individuals and their offspring. Manifestly no test 
can be conducted with meat animals that will permit of 
their subsequent use as breeders. It is conceivable that 
tests may be provided to show the amount and cost of 
gains of breeding cattle, sheep or swine, but such tests 
can at best be only suggestive. For those who will use 
them properly and not over-estimate them, year books 
based upon show awards such as are now being prepared 
by some breed associations are of assistance to breed- 
ers in studying the achievements of representatives of 
various blood lines. 

It is not to be expected that a very large percentage of 

our farm animals will ever be registered. Indeed if all 

animals now bearing recorded pedi- 

Registration in grees were actually capable of ef- 
The Future. fecting improvement upon the best 
of the unregistered flocks and herds, 
the breeders would be more highly regarded and more 
freely patronized than they now are. Animals with re- 
corded pedigrees are manifestly intended by their own- 
ers for breeding purposes rather than for immediate com- 
mercial uses. Such pure-bred stocks are valuable and 



BREED RELATIONS 217 

can be maintained only as they can and do exert an ele- 
vating influence upon herds of which the increase is de- 
signed for market rather than for further breeding use. 
In view of these apparent relations it would seem alto- 
gether natural that we should expect in the future, not 
so much a large extension of the practice of registra- 
tion as the attainment of a much higher degree of actual 
merit all through the registered animals of herds and 
flocks designed to serve as sources of improving ma- 
terial. With the realization of such a condition the 
business of rearing commercial stock will doubtless be 
more sharply differentiated from the breeding business 
than it now is and the patronage of the breeders will be 
more general as well as more discriminating. 

The production of market stock by the crossing of 
distinct breeds is not uncommon in England and some 

sections of America may find jus- 
Cross-Brccding. tification for making pure crosses. 

It cannot be denied that for the 
most part the cross-breeding now practiced results mainly 
in loss and disappointment. This is due largely to in- 
discriminate and purposeless crossing. The basis of most 
of the unstudied practice of crossing breeds is the hope 
of combining desirable features of both parents while 
at the same time excluding the less valuable qualities. 
Crossing is fully as likely to result in a combination of 
the objectionable features of both sides to the exclu- 
sion of the good. It is a very suggestive fact that in 
only one instance, namely, the Oxford Down sheep, has 
a new and useful breed resulted from a union of two 
other distinct breeds. The uncertainties attaching to the 



218 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

offspring of cross-bred parents may doubtless be ex- 
plained by the principle of Mendel's law as discussed 
in Chapter XVI. 

In some of our more numerous breeds we have two 
or more distinct types bred to different standards and 
for different special uses. Such 
Crossing types while similar in many exter- 

Types. nal characteristics have very dissim- 

ilar hereditary tendencies, and 
while recorded in the same book have had their rise and 
whole course of ancestry with little or nothing In com- 
mon. Such types within breeds can be mated only with 
the results attaching to the mating of distinct breeds. 
There are however some material advantages to be de- 
rived from the intelligent crossing of breeds. Cross- 
bred animals often have a vigor and a robustness greater 
than characterized either parent. This enhanced vigor 
gives greater and more rapid growth and therefore per- 
mits a considerable economy in the production of a mar- 
ket carcass. The value and uniformity of particular 
crosses can be ascertained only by tests. 

Other advantages are found in the greater prolificacy 
and better nursing qualities of the females of some breeds 
which when crossed give progeny of satisfactory charac- 
ter and at a lower cost than is common in the stock of 
the sire. In order to secure the 
Pure Breeds benefits of cross-breeding without 
for Crossing. the possible losses it is necessary to 
proceed only in the light of careful 
experience and to keep the parent stock pure. The de- 
mand for good pure-bred females to be used as dams of 



BREED RELATIONS 219 

cross-bred market animals may in the future absorb con- 
siderable numbers of the breeders' surplus females. Low- 
ered vitality in dams of market stock may as often be 
remedied by carefully chosen males of the same breed 
as by those of a different breed. 

It is impossible to foresee the ultimate development 
of our domestic animals. It sometimes seems that per- 
fection is well-nigh attained. The foregoing discussions 
have shown, however, that perfection of animal form and 
qualities is a relative matter. The most nearly perfect 
animal is the one that best performs what is desired. 
Inasmuch as what is desired will continue to change as 
it has always done, the standard is a shifting one, and 
since it is impossible to know what will be required of 
future races of animals, conjecture as to their charac- 
ter is of no avail. Many individual animals do cer- 
tainly approach very close to present day perfection. 
Such successes of the breeder's art give encouragement 
and point the way for owners of mediocre stock, and 
through their own kindred and offspring the good ani- 
mals facilitate the elevation of the general stock to a 
higher level. It seems that the most useful work for 
the breeder now lies more in the production of sufficient 
numbers of representatives of best existing types rather 
than in the modification of the stamp of our champions. 

The idea sometimes finds ex- 
Liinits of pression that improvement can be 

Improvement. carried too far for real utility, that 

the types held at higher levels lead 

artificial lives and lose the robustness and regularity of 

reproduction so essential in commercial stock. Cases 



220 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

can be cited to show that herds and flocks bred closely 
to their breeders' ideals have become too delicate and 
too low in rate of reproduction to commend them to a 
place in even the best farm practice. Such so-called 
improvement has been best illustrated in the passing 
type of light-boned and under-sized swine, though simi- 
lar conditions have been evidenced in other classes of 
stock and give rise to the idea of over-improvement. 
The term mis-improvement is more nearly correct. Such 
stocks may have made steady progress toward the stand- 
ards of their breeders, but it is evident that the ideal 
of those breeders was not a practical animal and can- 
not therefore be considered as strictly high-class from 
an agricultural standpoint. Perfection is too likely to 
be regarded as residing in the animal form alone. Real 
perfection embraces conformation and all that is appar- 
ent to the eye, but no less it includes those qualities of 
adaptability to the animal's real work which may mean 
either spirit and ease of movement, good feeding and 
digestive powers, or grazing disposition. And in all cases 
it must include that vitality and constitutional vigor 
without which there can be neither economy of increase 
nor certainty of reproduction. 

In the grading up of native animals it has seemed 
desirable to eliminate some of the qualities intensified 

by nature's careful selection for the 

Effects of In jit- sole purpose of fecundity and adapt- 

dicious Breeding, ability to natural surroundings. In 

so doing chief emphasis has been 
laid upon those features and qualities chiefly demanded 
by artificial environment, and only after the loss of much 



BREED RELATIONS 221 

of the native regularity of reproduction and foraging 
capacity have those quahties been fully appreciated. Arti- 
ficial selection can produce and perpetuate the animals 
needed for artificial demand with just as much safety 

and certainty as natural selection 

Breeding for Vigor has operated to fulfill nature's re- 

and Prolificacy. quirements. The task is a more 

complex one however, and can only 
be met b}^ making our selections on a very broad basis, 
one that includes all useful natural and produced features. 
There is full assurance that a selection that recognizes 
fertility and constitutional vigor can improve and in- 
tensify those qualities just as surely as selection has con- 
trolled the set of the pastern or the turn of the ear. 

Achievement of the object of such selection calls for 
indefinite time, pains and experience. The future of 
our breed rests with our breeders as a body. No one 
works for himself alone; each one either retards or ac- 
celerates the rate of progress toward the highest useful- 
ness of man's servant companions,, the farm animals. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

BREEDERS' ASSOCIATIONS. 

The aim of the various associations of breeders is to 
do by combined effort what unorganized individuals 

could only do with difficulty if at 

Origin of all. The value of combined effort 

Registration. first became manifest when trade 

became general in highly bred ani- 
mals. The value of a strong line of ancestry as a re- 
inforcement of individuality in breeding stock was rec- 
ognized by the patrons of Bakewell land succeeding) 
breeders. So long as the buyer was dealing with Bake- 
well or the Collings he knew that his purchase was the 
product of several generations of selection by the person 
by whom the ancestry was described, and nothing more 
was necessary. With a rapidly increasing number of 
breeders and the necessity of dealing with comparative 
strangers, whose herds and whose careers as breeders 
were not familiar, it became necessary to have some- 
thing more than a mere verbal statement of the ancestry 
or pedigree. Especially was the verbal transfer of pedi- 
gree unsatisfactory when animals were bougifht from 
persons owning large herds composed mainly of indi- 
viduals reared by other breeders. The danger of con- 
fusion and intentional or unintentional misrepresentation 
of pedigrees was considerable. 

(222) 



breeders' associations 223 

It was with an aim to remove such difficuhies that 
confronted early Short-horn breeders that George Coates, 
acting on his own initiative, collected the pedigrees of 
Short-horns of note up to the time he issued his first 
volume in 1822. It was not until 1876 that the British 
breeders, organized as the Short-horn Society of Great 
Britain, took charge of the preparation and publication 
of pedigree records. The following from Coates' first 
volume is of interest : "As it must be the interest and 
wish of every breeder to be enabled to breed with the 
greatest possible accuracy as to pedigrees and so forth, 
therefore, to assist the author in correcting errors in this 
work he takes the liberty of recommending every breeder 
to have one of his works interleaved with plain paper, 
and on it to correct any errors he may discover, or make 
fresh entries as his stock increases; all of which entries 
(or a copy of them), being sent by every breeder to tlue 
author immediately (or at all events prior to the com- 
pilation of the next edition of this work), will be an in- 
calculable benefit to the breeders at large and the author 
in particular." 

Short-horn affairs had assumed considerable propor- 
tion in America before the time the British breeders took 
control of their herd book. From 1846 to 1882 Lewis 
F. Allen performed for the American breeders a serv- 
ice similar to that of Coates in England. The breeders 
of Ohio and Kentucky also published rival books and 
it was not until 1882 that the three enterprises were 
combined under the auspices of the present American 
Short-horn Association. The advantages of a single as- 
sociation for each breed are too manifest to need men- 



224 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

tion. However among those interested in some of our 
breeds of horses, sheep and swine 
Advantage of there is not even yet sufficient har- 
Singlc Register. mony of effort and method to pre- 
vent the existence of several rival 
associations organized for exactly similar purposes. 
Unanimity of effort is desirable because it simplifies reg- 
istration and exchange of animals of the breed, and also 
because organized effort can care for important matters 
better than the most earnest of scattered endeavors. In 
no European country is there more than one associa- 
ion for a single breed of stock. Although a single as- 
ociation is much more useful, there is in America noth- 
?• to prevent any number of breeders who are dissat- 
ified with the management of their associations from 
organizing a new one. 

Practically all associations are chartered in some state 
^'1 any supervision of their work by state officials is 
wholly nominal, and the officers 
Conduct of elected by the membership are re- 

Herd-Books. sponsible only to the members. Se- 
rious abuses have developed 
through the acquirement of control of an association by 
a small number of persons who may direct affairs for their 
own interest and in a few instances dishonestly. Such 
mismanagement has been facilitated by the failure of a 
considerable part of the membership to attend the annual 
meetings at which officers are required to report upon 
their administration of the affairs of the society. In 
other instances interested parties have secured proxies, 
without instructions as to their use, in sufficient number 



BREEDERS ASSOCIATIONS 



225 




226 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

to over-ride the number of members usually present in 
person. The use of proxies is rapidly being discontinued 
and the more general attendance of members insures fair 
administration of their affairs. Fraudulent registrations 
when detected are usually punished by the expulsion of 
the offender and cancellation of pedigrees of animals 
owned by him at the time. Some associations are more 
active than others in detecting frauds, although it is im- 
possible for any set of officers to fully verify the breed- 
ing given in each application for registry. The asso- 
ciation will be no better and no worse than the average 
integrity of its individual members. 

Imported pure-bred animals have always been ad- 
mitted to the United States without payment of duty. 
The law relating to such exemption from duty is a part 
of the tariff act and has stood for some years as follows : 

"Any animal imported by a citizen of the United 
States specially for breeding purposes shall be admitted 
free, whether intended to be so used by the importer 
himself or for sale for such purpose : Provided, that no 
such animal shall be admitted free unless pure-bred, of 
a recognized breed, and duly registered in the books 
of record established for that breed. And provided fur- 
ther^ that certificate of such record and of the pedigree 
of such animal shall be produced and submitted to the 
customs officer, duly authenticated by the proper cus- 
todian of such book of record, together with the affidavit 
of the owner, agent or importer, that such animal is 
the identical animal described in said certificate of record 
and pedigree : And provided further, that the Secretary 
of Agriculture shall determine and certify to the Sec- 
retary of the Treasury what are recognized breeds and 
pure-bred animals under the provisions of this para- 
graph." 



breeders' associations 227 

Until 1904 the Secretary of Agriculture furnished 
the Secretary of the Treasury lists of foreign books re- 
cording animals entitled to admis- 
Relation of sion to the United States free of 

Government. duty. In that year however a 
change was made and American 
books of record were certified to the customs officers.* 
Animals claiming exemption from duty were required to 
have shown for them certificates of registration in Ameri- 
can books of record. t Only such books were placed upon 
the Government certified list as had complied with regu- 
lations established by the Department of Agriculture, 
calculated to insure the fair and proper management of 
those books. ]\'Iany associations whose members did not 
wish to import stock complied with the Government or- 
ders and secured the Government certification of their 
books for the standing it gave them with breeders and 
buyers from other countries. 

In December, 19 10, it was ruled that it had not been 
the intention of the framers of the tariff act to empower 
the Department of Agriculture to supervise the registra- 
tion of pure-bred live stock; following this decision re- 
turn was made to the former plan and imported ani- 
mals are now passed upon presentation of certificates 
of registration in books of the foreign associations. 

The Canadian breeders have worked out a novel and 
admirable plan of administering the affairs of breeders' 
associations. The Canadian act providing for the incor- 
poration of live stock record associations was passed in 

*21st Annual Report of Bureau of Animal Industry; Order No. 
130, p. 594. 

t23d Annual Report of Bureau of Animal Industry; Order No. 
136. p. 353. 



228 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

1900. It provides for the incorporation of such associa- 
tions upon appHcation to the Do- 
Canadian Regis- minion Minister of Agriculture. 

tration Affairs. Not more than one association for 
each distinct breed of horses, cattle, 
sheep or swine can be incorporated under the act. In 
1904 delegates from all existing associations met in con- 
vention and organized themselves into the National Live 
Stock Association. At the same time it was agreed that 
all existing records should be amalgamated into one Na- 
tional Record. It was also arranged for the Minister of 
Agriculture to assume the administration of the National 
Live Stock Record. The various associations retain 
their identity, continue their work of promoting breed 
interests, make their own rules, and elect a member of 
the joint executive committee known as the National 
Record Board. This board deals with matters in wdiich 
the societies are jointly interested. The record offices are 
in the government buildings and each certificate of reg- 
istration is examined by a representative of the Minister 
of Agriculture and if approved has affixed to it the seal 
of the Department of Agriculture. 

Nearly all records in all countries limit registration 

to the offspring of registered parents. New^er breeds 

have less rigid standards agreed to 

Eligibility to until such time as it becomes ad- 

Registration. visable to receive no more founda- 
tion stock. The American Trotting 
Register and the American Saddle Horse Register are 
to be closed to all but progeny of registered stock in 
191 3. All such regulations, charges for registration and 



breeders' associations 229 

disposition of accumulated moneys are decided upon in 
business meetings of the members. Membership fees 
vary from $i to $20 per year. Any breeder may be^ 
come a member of the association of the breed he han- 
dles and as a member has a vote on all questions and is 
eligible to hold office in the association. In many associa- 
tions the charges for registration are lower on animals 
owned by members than on those owned by non-members. 
Breeders organize for other purposes also than mere 
registration. In many instances standards of excellence 
have been prepared and distributed 
Other Functions of to secure uniformity in the objects 
Breed Associations, of the breeders. Expense is some- 
times incurred in advertising and 
in arranging for sales of stock in districts that give 
promise of developing a demand for breeding stock. Of 
recent years the associations have appropriated large 
sums to be offered as additional prizes at important fairs. 
The extra premium money insures larger and better ex- 
hibits to make a creditable display to attract the public 
and to acquaint them with the accomplishments of the 
breeders and with the value of superior stock. 

The discussion so far has dealt primarily with the 
fundamental principles underlying successful breeding. 
The aim has been to present the known factors which 
determine heredity and to give an unbiased summary of 
the theories advanced by noted scientists for explaining 
the mysterious features of reproduction. The molding of 
animal form and function is an art in itself, based mainly 
on the practical experience and achievements of the 
master breeders but aided in later years by the discoveries 



230 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

and theories of scientific investigators. In the light of 
the preceding pages, a brief consideration of the steps by 
which horses, cattle sheep and swine have reached their 
present state of perfection and adaptation to human needs 
will give a clearer understanding of breeders' problems. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

HORSE BREEDING. 

The faithful horse has been the subject of a great 
many unfulfilled prophecies. At different times his 
friends have thought the time of his passing had come 
but the factors that seemed to threaten his existence really 
enlarged his field. Up to the latter part of the last cen- 
tury every new application of mechanical power seemed 
to promote trade. The number of wealthy persons grew 
and one of the first manifestations of that wealth was the 
family carriage, appropriately horsed and stylishly 
equipped. The use of the automobile as a pleasure vehicle 
and as an evidence of wealth has vitally affected the out- 
let for light horses. The draft horse, on the contrary, was 
never before in such great demand. 

In the first part of the nineteenth century cities were 
comparatively small and business not highly organized. 
The chief demand for large work 
Place of the horses came from the managers of 
Dj^aft Horse. wagon freight lines. Shipping of 
merchandise from eastern cities by 
canals in 1825 and by railroads in 1835 appeared to have 
done away with the greatest need of the horse. In reality, 
these changes brought with them the greatest commercial 
demand for horses, improved means of travel and trans- 
portation, extended commerce and stimulated the growth 

(231) 



232 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

of cities. The shipping and distribution of manufactured 
articles has always made the draft horse the peculiar need 
of the large business concerns in our modern cities. It 
is the city demand that has given the draft horse his 
place in America. The same is true of other countries. 

The future will doubtless bring a more general appre- 
ciation of the economy of the larger horse in farm w^ork. 
His use on the land means larger implements and less 
man labor per acre. Farmers of hilly lands may continue 
to use lighter horses or to adopt the larger ones and lay 
greater emphasis on freedom of ac- 
Citics Set tion. It is still true however that 

Prices. the price of horses purchased for 

farm work is on a level with the 
earning capacity of those animals on the city streets. 
The city is the chief consumer and the values it 
places upon the various types and sizes are the ones that 
govern at all points where forces are dealt in. 

By 1850 the development of American cities and the 

organization of business was such as to produce a demand 

for work horses of greater size than 

Earlier Draft had previously been in use. Until 

Horse Affairs. then the horse stock of the coun- 
try w^as chiefly related to lighter 
breeds. A few English and Scotch stallions and 
some with French blood may have been in service in our 
central states. These would have come chiefly through 
Canada to satisfy such demand as existed for farm horses 
of greater weight. In 185 1 the first Percheron came to 
Ohio. His colts \vere so highly esteemed that he was 
soon purchased by Illinois breeders who were anxious to 



HORSE BREEDING 



233 




234 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

produce the type of horse called for by Chicago team users. 
Subsequent importations of Percherons, or Normans as 
they were called at first, were quite numerous. Clydes- 
dales and Shires began to come from the British Isles. 
These imported stallions were used chiefly to sire market 
geldings, though the largest that w^ere raised from the 
native mares would only be chunks in present-day mar- 
kets. 

After commerce had recovered from the effects of 

the civil war there was a period of greater activity in 

breeding and in the eighties importations of all the breeds 

were made on a large scale. Foreign-bred mares, together 

with those that descended from the earliest importations, 

formed a foundation in many establishments that seemed 

likely soon to furnish home-bred sires of market geldings. 

It had already been demonstrated that, given the blood 

and continuous good care and feeding, American-bred 

horses could compete with the best 

American from abroad. This was true of 

Breeding. Percherons and particularly so of 

the British breeds, because many of 

our best breeders were of English or Scotch birth and 

naturally chose to breed the horse of their native soil. 

In those years it seemed that American draft horse 
breeders would soon be as nearly independent of Europe 
as were breeders of beef cattle. Had there been no in- 
terruptions such would have been the outcome. The busi- 
ness depression of 1893 and the year following closed the 
city trade almost completely. The best horses shrank to 
less than half their former values and the fortunate man 
was he who had no breeding or surplus horses. Regis- 



HORSE BREEDING 



235 




236 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

tered mares were sold for what could be had and, in the 
frantic efforts to realize something from what seemed a 
wreck, nearly every horse-breeding 
The enterprise was abandoned and the 

Depression. results of slow and expensive ef- 

forts, by which our breeding was 
about to be established, were wantonly sacrificed. The 
occurrences of that period are responsible for the fact 
that today, sixty years after the first importations of draft 
stallions, the bulk of the draft horses marketed are the 
progeny of sires purchased in European countries. 

The wonderful expansion of trade that began in the 
closing years of the nineteenth century found our farmers 
unprepared to supply the great num- 
The bers of high-class horses needed for 

Revival. city work. There has been a scar- 

city of mares of sufficient size 
and breeding to produce real drafters even when mated 
to the excellent animals included in the large num- 
bers of stallions brought from abroad in recent years. The 
scarcity of mares likely to raise stallions fit for stud service 
has been still more marked. The imported stallion is so 
common and the home-bred so often inferior by compari- 
son that it has too often been 
Advantages of granted that superior horses cannot 
Foreign Breeders, be raised in America. The fact is 
that the main if not the only real 
advantage enjoyed by breeders abroad is in the superi- 
ority of their mares. They have been breeding along 
the same line ever since the draft type was established. 
They have not needed to put size before all else 



HORSE BREEDING 



i 



ir 



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f 


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?-. 


i ^. i 


v? 


fa 


S- 


M 


Pi- 


kt 


P 



238 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

in choosing stallions to breed to. Their mares have been 
as large as desired and the selection of stallions has been 
based upon conformation, soundness, action, limbs and 
feet and other features for which our breeders are so 
ready to pay large prices. While a large proportion of 
the winning mares and stallions in our draft-horse shows 
are imported, American-bred winners have been numer- 
ous enough to demonstrate that the right breeding and 
right feeding are as successful here as anywhere. Our 
home-bred winners are the offspring of mares whose an- 
cestors have been selected for several generations for 
quality and action no less than for size. 

Home-bred exhibits have scored more heavily in the 
mare than in the stallion classes. Of late years practi- 
cally all mares eligible to registra- 
Stallion tion have been retained on the 

Raising. farms. Because young stallions 

are so much more troublesome only 
a few are kept entire and those that are spared are 
much less likely to receive the feed and care essential 
to the development of draft qualities. It does not 
seem likely that horse breeding will be taken up as a 
special business as is the breeding of other classes of 
stock. The risk of mares failing to raise foals makes it 
desirable to obtain some work from them to pay their 
keep when not breeding. A considerable amount of work 
can be done without injury to mares even when they are 
breeding. Such work must be done in the hands of a 
careful teamster and many failures to raise foals are at- 
tributable to the driver of the mare. For these reasons 
draft horses are likely to be raised by farmers rather than 



HORSE BREEDING 



239 




240 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

by professional breeders. The methods coming into use 
for getting mares in foal by artificial means are sure to add 
greatly to the returns from horse-breeding and to make 
both mares and stallions more profitable as investments. 
Farm breeding is much more favorable to raising mares ' 
than stallions though this is not necessarily true. It is 
possible that America may develop the French custom of 
buying numbers of colts at weaning time to be developed 
on separate farms until salable as breeders. 

The continued high prices for horses have helped to 

direct the consideration of team users to the auto-truck. 

That a part of the work now done 

Influence of hy horses can be done by mechanical 

the Auto-Truck, power has been demonstrated. The 
relation of costs of hauling by horses 
and by motor power is not so clear. Considering the 
amount of work that must always be performed by horses 
and the continual expansion of commerce there is every 
reason for assurance that really high-class horses will 
command more than it costs to produce them. The com- 
petition of the auto-truck or any 

Breed for Top other factor that tends to change 
of Market. values affects first and most seri- 

ously the animals of lowest earning 
capacity. The smaller sorts or those that lack durability 
because of defects in foot, limb or body will be the first 
to be discriminated against. To insure maximum returns 
it is therefore always a practical economy to breed for 
the top of the market, to select parent stock and care for 
them and their offspring in such a way as to reduce to a 
minimum the probabilities of having misfits to sell. 



HORSE BREEDING 



241 




242 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

Buyers of draft horses are as far from being unan- 
imous in their ideas of perfection in form as are breeders. 
Points of conformation offer Httle 
Draft ground for divergence of opinion, 

Types. but there are at least two types 

either one of which will suit the 
preferences of different buyers. It is of small moment 
whether one breeds for the upstanding free-going kind or 
for the lower and extremely drafty type that matures 
earlier and is of more phlegmatic disposition. The former 
type is commoner in the Clydesdales and Shires, the latter 
among Percherons and Belgians. The British breeders 
argue that w^hile their horses are somewhat slow^er in at- 
taining their maximum development, their fibre is such 
that they remain serviceable through a great number of 
years. The continental breeds find favor with farmers 
by coming onto the market while still quite young. All 
of these peculiar features are as much matters of indi- 
viduality as of breed. 

Since the revival of the draft horse demand size has 
been at so great a premium that there has been but little 
discrimination among different kinds of horses that are 
up to required size and weight. Firms buying geldings 
for show and advertising purposes have bought quality 
and action at a high premium, but in the main softness 
of bone, coarseness of joints and 
Market defect of action have been very 

Discriniination. lightly discounted. It is impossible 
that animals with such characteris- 
tics can do as much work or remain in service so long as 
the better sort, but in the activity of the demand for 



HORSE BREEDING 



243 




244 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

weight there has been Httle evidence of observations of 
difference in the wearing of different kinds of horses. It 
is inevitable that discrimination will soon be made in the 
selling ring as judges have been doing in the sho wring. 
Size will be a prime requisite no less than it has been, but 
cleanness and correct set of limbs and trueness of action 
directly related to a horse's value on the street will be ap- 
preciated whenever the buyers are sufficiently independent 
to be discriminating. In service as in breeding individu- 
ality is more of a controlling factor than is the breed 
name. 

Breeding the lighter classes of horses Is not so strictly 
an agricultural matter as is the breeding of drafters. Good 
driving and saddle horses continue in demand and at 
prices that make their raising an attractive business. 
Breeding is even more of a factor in light-horse breeding 
than with draft horses, at least feeding is less to be relied 
upon for producing market qualities. Neither coach, driv- 
ing nor saddle horses enter into commerce to any con- 
siderable extent. Their users are persons who own horses 
for the pleasure of using or showing them, consequently 
there is practically no limit to the amount obtainable for 
finished specimens, and misfits or sub-standard sorts are 
unlikely to bring more than the cost of rearing them. 
Some of the lighter less level soils in the localities of 
larger centers of population are better adapted to the rear- 
ing of light horses than are most of the farms in the corn- 
belt. 

A carriage horse seldom develops sufficiently before 
five years of age to show the style and action that sell 
best. Even the most promising young horses require a 



HORSE BREEDING 



245 




246 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

year or more of expert handling and most of the more 
successful show horses are handled 
Breeding through a number of seasons. Such 

Carriage handling is expensive but when a 

Horses. show hoise results the expense is 

fully justified. 
In the past many of our best specimens of high-step- 
ping horses have been found by dealers who handle large 
numbers of prospects in the hope of 
Good Breeding developing a few of extraordinary 
an Essential. merit. The business is fast becom- 
ing more fully systematized. If ex- 
treme style and action are not transmitted with great cer- 
tainty it is largely because matings are rare in which both 
parents are backed up by ancestors that were themselves 
of show caliber. Raising coach horses is not an attractive 
business to one who is not prepared to develop and mar- 
ket the horses he raises. The breeder of a horse has the 
best opportunity to develop him fully and if he does nor 
do so he can receive only fair prices for those he sells 
as show prospects. The trouble and expense of develop- 
ing is justified only when the breeding is of the very best. 
It is not sufficient that there be uniformity of conforma- 
tion in the breeding stock, but there must also be similarity 
in the spirit and ease and height of action that go to 
make up the highest type of carriage horse. 

The outlet for roadster horses is 

Breeding not so broad as before the coming of 

Trotters. the automobile. Really high-class 

road horses are wanted however, 

and the demand for horses likely to develop into racers 



HORSE BREEDING 247 

is unlimited. The sport of trotting racing is firmly 
established in every part of our country. Horse racing 
is in no sense an agricultural affair, but selling young 
animals for driving purposes or to be prepared for 
racing by those engaged in that work offers an oppor- 
tunity for profitably combining good farming with ability 
as a breeder. Here also, while individuality counts for 
much, performance is the main thing and it must come 
by inheritance. To secure profitable prices for undevel- 
oped trotters they must be correctly built, faultless in ac- 
tion and above all bred in lines that have produced ex- 
treme speed. 



CHAPTER XX. 

CATTLE BREEDING. 

Improved cattle were brought from Europe to Amer- 
ica in the latter part of the eighteenth century. There 
have been periods of depression when scant progress was 
made, yet on the whole advancement has been steady and 
any one of the leading breeds could continue to go for- 
ward without further importation. The Short-horn was 
strongly entrenched in most parts of the country before 
its rivals appeared. American-bred Bates Short-horns 
were purchased by English breeders in the seventies. The 
opening of the range trade in the late seventies diverted 
attention from the deep-milking beef 
Influence cow then so widely distributed on 

of the central and eastern farms. The 

Range. ranges furnished feeding cattle more 

cheaply than they could be produced 
under the best systems of farming. The only oppor- 
tunity for the breeder was to furnish bulls for the western 
steer-raiser. That trade discriminated against heavy- 
milking qualities. It also prized the ruggedness and 
heavy-fleshing qualities of the type of Short-horn then 
being brought from Scotland and the Bates era closed 
with the beginning of the Scotch boom. 

The western trend of population has now removed 
some of the economic advantage enjoyed by the ranch- 

(248) 



CATTLE BREEDING 



249 




250 I'.RKI-.DINC FARiM ANIMALS 

man in the cheapness of his huul, and a retnrn to farm 
breeding is certain. The early malnrity and heavy tlesh- 
ins;- oi the Scotch type are e\en more 
/■)('('/ and vahiahlc than formerly, hul strict 

I'aliiabic Lands, economy in prodncing heef on high- 
priced lands is reviving the demand 
for nnlking ([ualilies in the dams o\ steers that are 
to he fed ont by the men who breed them. l)ritisii 
farm conditions are \ery similar to those that exist in 
much oi the territory w here Short-horns are most numer- 
ous in America. The Ih'itish standard has included the 
(|ualities needled in America and our breeders ha\e con- 
timied to resiirt to the older hcrils o\er the water for herd 
bulls and for occasional females though the need \o\' 
these is declining as time goes on. 

The popularit\- o\ the Hereford with the range trade 
in the eighties had nuich to (\o with stimulating the change 
of type of Slu^n-horus. The liere- 
Aiiicricaii Proi^irrss ford had always been bred for graz- 
/// J lcrcf\)rds. ing puri)oses and was little affected 

by the transfer to the grass lands of 
the West. Importatit^us were numerous in the eighties, 
but in the nineties it became apparent that our own breed- 
ers were more successful in improving the weaknesses of 
the IJereford than were the friends of the breed in Eng- 
land. Since then there has been scant need for in^port- 
ing and it is admitted that this breed has been improved 
in this countr\- more than anv other imp(M*ttd breed of 
cattle. Hereford interests ha\e not been hampered by 
any coU^r craze, and familv names ha\e always l)een less 
considered than tam'il)le merit in nearbv ancestors. The 



CATTLE V.KEEDJSn 



251 




252 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

early-maturing feature has been fixed in them also and 
their easy-fattening qualities have added to their popu- 
larity among feeders of young cattle, though the same 
feature has worked against them to some extent when the 
feeding periods have been of longer duration. 

The Angus has less numerous advocates among the 
ranch men than have the two breeds referred to but the 
prices Angus steers command from cornbelt feeders win 
them very ardent advocates. The coming of this breed 
followed closely after that of the Hereford and it is 
strongest in sections w^here cattle feeding is carried on 
extensively. The peculiar advantage of this breed is 
shown in its wonderful record of winnings in block tests 
and in competitions for prizes for finished bullocks. The 
Galloway enjoys almost undisputed sway under climatic 
conditions resembling those of its native home in south- 
western Scotland. The enterprise of its breeders is bring- 
ing this breed the appreciation that is its due. 

A few factors have operated upon all breeds alike 
during the last two decades. The changing tastes and 
style of living of our population 
Evolution make themselves felt upon the mar- 

of Types. kets through the purveyors of meats. 

As a result the live-cattle weight of 
greatest popularity has steadily declined. The other fac- 
tor that has operated in the same direction is the demand 
for early maturity. The greater economy of production 
in young animals has been more and more appreciated as 
meat-producing lands advance in value and require the 
most economical utilization of the crops produced. The 
result has been that the modern beef type is practically the 



CATTLE BREEDING 



253 




254 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

same in all breeds. So long as only the really good indi- 
viduals are considered the breed means comparatively lit- 
tle. There is still however a wide divergence along the 
lines of inherent tendencies that have much to do with 
adaptability. 

It has been true in all stock breeding that breeders as 
a class are inclined to go to extremes. Since the majority 
of all the breeds have come to be of 
Early Maturity the smaller more early-maturing 
and She. stamp, a question arises as to the ef- 

fect of continued breeding from 
stock in which size and weight have often been overlooked 
in emphasizing smoothness of build and fleshing. The 
relations of gains to feed consumed is the fundamental 
factor in meat production. Breeding for the market alone 
may work to the detriment of the producer and create a 
gap between the breeder and his patrons, the raisers of 
beef. Maximum gains consist of the products of growth 
and fattening. Growth is less pronounced in small ani- 
mals at all ages and the relation to size cannot safely be 
ignored in efforts to combine the highest value of the 
product with the greatest economy of production. 

It is commonly admitted that cows bred especially for 
milk production yield larger amounts of human food in 
proportion for feed consumed than 
Advance of do beef cattle. This suggests 

Dairying, that dairying must inevitably sup- 

plant beef-making. Recent years 
have seen a great expansion of dairy interests. Many 
lands whose owners were forced out of beef-raising by 
the range supplies and were unsuccessful in speculative 



CATTLE BREEDING 



255 







256 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

feeding operations have become badly run down. There 
has been a great increase of consumption of milk and 
butter proportional to the growth of population. Supplies 
could come only from the lands located near the markets 
for dairy products. Dairy animals are now established on 
many lands that had carried little stock since beef-making 
was relinquished. 

It is important to recognize the fact that the relation 

of product to feed is more easily studied in feeding for 

milk than when meat is a marketable product. Partly 

for this reason and partly because beef-raising has been 

regarded as the business of cheap 

Advantages lands, the feeding of beef animals 

of Dairying. has not been made so scientific as 

has the work of the dairyman. The 
individualities of animals have not been so highly re- 
garded nor so closely studied by those engaged in meat 
production. There is probably less variability in produc- 
tive capacity among animals bred in beef lines than exists 
in milking stock. The abandonment of wholesale methods 
will decrease the difference that has seemed to exist be- 
tween the possible returns from these two classes of 
cattle. 

The general adoption of dairy farming in older parts 
of the world is evidence that this kind of cattle husbandry 
must ultimately prevail. In such countries the labor ques- 
tion has a vastly different aspect from that which it pre- 
sents in America. The eating of meat will continue so 
long as it can be purchased at prices within reach of the 
bulk of the population. Its production is less dependent 
upon the labor factor than is that of milk. Scientifically 



CATTLE BREEDING 



257 






w- 





i 



^^^ 







258 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

conducted beef-making will offer rewards to careful breed- 
ing and studied feeding for an indefinite number of years. 
There are considerable stretches of country in the United 
States and Canada that can be utilized successfully in 
rearing feeders and stockers under a system that requires 
of a cow only that she shall rear a calf each year. Most 
of the cattle must be raised in the grain-producing areas 
however, and all of the fattening must be done there. 
Breeders who expect to find an outlet for their surplus 
stock among farmers of these valuable lands must recog- 
nize the fact that the need is for a profitable beef type 
of animal with sufificient milking capacity in the cows 
to enable them to raise two calves each year or to allow 
the owners to sell the milk of one-half the herd while 
the other half raises all the calves. 

In Great Britain experience has shown that commer- 
cial beef -raising and the work of the breeder do not 
combine satisfactorily. The fattening and marketing of 

less valuable animals is no hindrance 

Professional to a breeder's work, but when the 

and main interest is in the market stock 

Coninici'cial the details of rearing and selling 

Breeders. breeding stock are not likely to be 

fully looked after. Unless that is 
done, the returns from sales of animals for breeding pur- 
poses are likely to include less profit than those from 
stock sold for slaughter. The discrimination likely to be 
exercised by future buyers of breeding animals will de- 
mand the full exercise of the breeders' skill while he 
who chooses to breed for the market will be the gainer 
by paying fair prices for the bulls he needs. 



CATTLE BREEDING 



259 




260 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

The breeding of dairy cattle is comparatively free 
from disturbing elements. The principal variation is in 
the strength of demand for the more meritorious stock. 
The superiority of the improved 
Superiority animal lies almost altogether in her 

for greater economy of production. 

Dairy Purposes. Cost of production is usually in- 
versely proportional to the amount 
of production. There is but little difference in the value 
of the solids produced by improved and by scrub cows. 
The breeds differ among themselves mainly in the pro- 
portion of solids to the whole amount of milk yielded 
and in adaptability of the solids to various uses. The 
animals themselves differ in adaptability to conditions, 
chiefly in relation to the amounts of roughages and con- 
centrates that they can most profitably utilize. 

Public competitions and so-called breed tests such as 
have been conducted at expositions are apparently planned 
to test the relative efficiencies of the breeds entered. Such 
trials stimulate interest and encour- 
Breed age study of breeding, feeding and 

Tests. management. As competitions they 

serve to test the skill of the various 
feeders. It is doubtful if any other branch of the feeder's 
work is carried on so successfully in America as is the 
feeding for milk production. Few of the records made 
in the native homes of the breeds are comparable with 
those found in the Advanced Register and in the Register 
of Merit. Most of the high producers trace through sev- 
eral generations of American-bred stock. Jersey breeders 
import more largely than do the w^orkers with other 



CATTLE BREEDING 



261 




262 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

breeds. The Island cattle are highly bred in producing 
lines, but much of their popularity is due to their at- 
tractiveness of form and symmetry which have often 
been ignored by American breeders in basing their selec- 
tions solely on features indicating producing capacity. 

There is no need for speculation as to the future place 
of the dairy cow and but little occasion for discussion 
regarding the type of the future. The most useful and 
the most highly prized animals will always be those that 
produce most largely and most economically. There 
seems but little to be desired in realization of greater 
possibilities though doubtless rec- 
Adyanccs ords still more astonishing will be 

in made. Adoption of the plan of re- 

Dairy Breeding, porting records of the feed con- 
sumed at the same time the milk 
and butter yield is reported will facilitate closer study of 
economy of production. The accomplishment most to be 
hoped for is the fixing of the qualities of the record- 
makers so as to raise the average records of the breeds. 
In selections for this purpose the cows' records as pro- 
ducers and breeders and the bulls' records as sires of 
tested daughters are of extreme value. Yearly records 
are much more useful in this connection than those cover- 
ing shorter periods. Some breeders, among them many 
successful ones, assert that in breeding for production 
the records may safely be made the 
Form and sole guide in selection. In such a 

Function. study we feel the weight of the 

handicap of ignorance regarding ex- 
ternal evidences of digestive power and milk secretion. 



CATTLE BREEDING 



263 




264 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

The relation of form to function is very imperfectly 
understood though it is known that certain physical quali- 
ties are uniformly characteristic of proved cows. Breed- 
ing only by the aid of records may often suggest combina- 
tions of blood lines in each of which there is carried a 
fault that limits capacity for production. Breeding by 
records alone will give results for a time, but the highest 
achievement in utility must regard both form and meas- 
urements of function as a basis for selection. 

Although the milk-giving function is undeveloped in 
the males there is no question as to a bull's capacity for 
transmitting the dairy qualities of the females that con- 
tributed to his inheritance. Some successful breeders 
consider the record of the paternal 
Extra grandam to be of greater moment 

Influence in determining the capacity of the 

of Sire. offspring than is that of the imme- 

diate dam. If this idea can be sub- 
stantiated by test records it would suggest an extra 
strength of inheritance through the males of the dairy 
breeds, not necessarily because they are males but because 
more carefully selected and more strongly bred than is 
usually the case with the females of the herd. 

It is impossible to disregard the possibility of impan*- 

ment of vigor in the offspring carried by cows that are 

at the same time l)eing stimulated to 

Testing their highest milking capacity. If 

Breeding the foetus is not more than three or 

Cows. four months' old when the testing of 

the dam is discontinued there need 

be no serious result. If it is older and the dam responds 



CATTLE BREEDING 265 

to feeding by an unusual yield of milk it is more than 
probable that the offspring will be weaker than it w^ould 
have been if the needs for foetal development had been 
given primary consideration in adjusting the ration. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

SHEEP BREEDING. 

Sheep breeding presents difficulties and offers rewards 
not met with in other classes of stock. One of the very 
considerable rewards is the pleasure of having overcome 
the difficulties. The peculiar need of controlling condi- 
tions in order to make sheep-raising a success grows out 
of the fact that the environment of farm sheep is highly 
artificial. The undomesticated sheep is a mountain 
dweller. In its habitat it is free from all dampness and 
always able to graze over large areas to secure the variety 
of vegetation necessary to appease its appetite. This 

peculiar appetite is the thing most 

EnviroHjjiciit generally prized, because it makes 

for sheep valuable as weed destroyers. 

Sheep. \\'hen confined to farm pastures 

they are soon deprived of the variety 
of food for which they crave and compelled to pass many 
times over the same ground. Under such conditions, and 
particularly when the soil is not of a dry character, there 
is a fostering of pests and diseases that are very difficult 
to treat. These troubles of farm sheep that are so dif- 
ficult to cure are preventable if the essentials of the en- 
vironment are made more nearly comparable with those 
of natural conditions. On smaller farms this can be 
done by grazing the flock upon a succession of green 

(266) 



SHEEP BREEDING 



267 




268 BREEDING FARxM ANIMALS 

crops that can be arranged to furnish a variety of forage 
and sufficient change of ground. Such farming for sheep 

involves more labor than allowing 

Economy of them to run on old pastures but it 

Sheep Raising. wards off their peculiar ailments 

and permits them to make their 
maximum returns. Furnished with the right kind of feed 
sheep will consume more in proportion to their size than 
do large animals and produce more in proportion to th.e 
feed consumed. It is only when the essential features of 
natural environment are preserved and improved under 
domestication that sheep can thrive fully. Otherwise 
they are less useful than they may be. 

All of our breeds of mutton sheep originated in Eng- 
land. Much has been done in fixing characters in the 
various breeds that will adapt them to varying altitudes 
and types of soil. The length of time through which the 
oldest of the breeds has been selected and cared for is 
far too short to overcome the force of natural features 
bred into the original stock by thousands of years of 
natural selection. Mutton production is profitable under 
the careful English shepherding on valuable lands. Im- 
ported sheep are much more prominent than home-bred 
ones in American shows of the mutton breeds and large 
numbers of rams are imported to head breeding flocks. 

The unusual development and the 

English vigor of the English sheep is a re- 

Shepherding. suit of the system of rearing their 

stock. Climatic advantages enable 
their shepherds to raise the crops needed with fewer dif- 
ficulties than are met with in some states, but it has 



SHEEP BREEDING 



269 



"^ 


jB 




- . 






--^B 


^^ 



270 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

been abundantly proved in our shows that good breeding 
supported by the right kind of care and feeding produces 
sheep in this country fully equal to the best from the 
homes of the breeds. 

Buyers of breeding sheep are seldom prepared to es- 
timate the merits of pedigrees. Selections are based 
nearly altogether on individuality alone and this explains 
part of the disappointments that are not uncommon. 
When selections are made in such a 

Pedigrees Not way as to secure actual merit sup- 

to Be Ignored. ported by breeding, and the details 
of care and rearing are attended to, 
sheep breeding is a most pleasant and profitable occupa- 
tion. The value of good blood is often obscured by the 
fact that the lambs from meritorious sires and dams are 
not handled in such a way as to permit them to exhibit 
the capacity for development that they have inherited. 
Success with sheep depends upon unremitting attention to 
a number of details, and the more intensified farming of 
the future is certain to bring in a more general and more 
careful sheep husbandry. 

The numerous breeds of medium and long-wool sheep 
represent every combination of qualities likely to be 
needed for adaptation to particular sections or systems of 
rearing. They difYer in size and in character of fleece, 
but the more vital distinctions grow out of the factors 
that have governed the selections of the makers of the 
breeds. Selection for rapid growth in some breeds has 
necessitated less strict adherence to the mutton form than 
has been practiced in the homes of other breeds. The 
fundamental features of adaptability are revealed by 



SHEEP BREEDING 



271 




272 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

Study of the conditions under which and for which each 
of the breeds has been developed. 

Breeders and judges magnify the importance of type 
in all breeds. It is sometimes insisted that an animal 
should not win, no matter what its mutton qualities, unless 
it exhibits the distinguishing characteristics of its breed. 
These characteristics are considered 
Breed to consist mainly of the covering 

Type. and features of the head, and gen- 

eral conformation is given secondary 
consideration as contributing to type. Although breed 
type is very desirable it is not an end in itself. The 
measure in which any animal exhibits the peculiar fea- 
tures of its breed should indicate its possession of the 
inherent tendencies that constitute its adaptability to the 
conditions for which its breed was produced. So long 
as breed character is held secondary to mutton qualities 
in breeding a mutton flock these incidental peculiarities 
are useful as indicating trueness to breed usefulness. 
When type is construed to consist of minor peculiarities 
of head and coloring, and more vital qualities are rele- 
gated to second place, then the indication is substituted for 
the reality, and actual commercial usefulness must de- 
cline. Breed points, or fancy points as they are some- 
times erroneously designated, have a value but it is always 
a secondary one. 

The United States is still a large importer of wool. 
A part of the home-grown wools are the equal of the 
best produced elsewhere but the amount has never equaled 
the requirements. Cheaper lands in countries of sparse 
populations produce the wool needed by older countries. 



SHEEP BREEDING 



273 




COTSWOLD EWE. 



274 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

Our own southwestern and northwestern states rank high 
in wool production but few of the farming sections have 
entered extensively into the produc- 
Fi)ie Wools tion of wool. In 1807 the states 
in America. then formed offered bounties to en- 
courage the production of w^ool. 
Societies were also formed at that time to encourage all 
kinds of home manufacturers and render the nation less 
dependent on materials from abroad. In the same year 
the first Merino sheep were taken west of the Alleghany 
Mountains. These sheep were the offspring of stock 
reared in Spain. Except for short periods wool-grow- 
ing has ever since been fostered by tariffs designed to 
keep wool prices above the values in the countries where 
they are produced more cheaply. When such protection 
has been temporarily withdrawn, the breeding of fine- 
wool sheep has been seriously affected. 

Fine wools are used in making of fabrics that could 
not be made from the wool of the mutton breeds. When 
fabrics made from Merino wools are in light demand the 
price of the wool is not in proportion to its quality but 
the weight of the fleece is always an important factor. 
Numerous sub-breeds and classes have been produced and 
provisions furnished for registration of local types and 
strains not sufficiently distinct to be considered breeds. 
There is great dif^culty in maintaining the maximum 
density and fineness of staple. For this purpose some 
flocks have been maintained to furnish these qualities in 
an extreme degree even though the sheep themselves are 
not considered suitable for farm breeding. Although it 
cannot be denied that these features are very dif^cult to 



SHEEP BREEDING 



275 




276 



BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 




SHEEP BREEDING 277 

retain, it is true that part of the difficulty has been due 
to lack of appreciation of the influence of ancestry. The 

offspring of sheep of the desired 

Maintaining practical type have shown a dete- 

the Type. rioration due in many cases to the 

fact that the parents themselves or 
the grandparents were the result of the mating of extreme 
types, and then particular individualities were not fixed 
enough to insure their transmission. 

Considerable numbers of sheep of the fine-wool classes 
have been exported to South Africa and Australia in 
recent years, and even should commercial breeding for 
wool be interfered with, the prestige of our professional 
breeders should enable them to continue to breed for 
the foreign trade. 



CHAPTER XXII. 
SWINE BREEDING. 

The swine-raising- industry has reached a development 
in America greater than anywhere else in the world. 
Other countries have effected improvement in their bacon- 
producing swine, but the world's lard supply comes from 
the cornbelt. The improvement of swine for lard pro- 
duction began with the occupancy of cornbelt lands. The 
horses and cattle brought by settlers from east of the 
Alleghanies and from Europe were satisfactory for the 
time, but it was not so with the swine. Upon this class 
of stock devolved the work of readily converting the 
easily grown corn into a marketable product. 

Since the establishment of the first American breed, 

the Poland-China, down to the present, the most serious 

problems of American swine breeders have arisen from 

that striking feature of the environment of their swine, 

the corn diet. The original types, 

Need of of which there were many, were too 

Iinproveincnt. coarse and ill-proportioned from 
the standpoint of those in charge 
of the first packing enterprises. It w^as also clear 
that a greater economy of production was desirable. 
Development was too slow and too small in propor- 
tion to the feed consumed. The offspring of some 
of the stock at hand became marketable at an earlier age 

(278) 



SWINE BREEDING 



279 




280 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

than the others did and the blood of such was freely 
used. This was no occasion to consider the idea of 
impairment of size or prolificacy. The great defects for 
many years were slow fattening and lack of market 
qualities. Until the beginning of the second quarter of 
the nineteenth century efforts to improve the swine were 
necessarily scattered and not very effective. 

Developments of the years following gave promise of 

reward to breeders who could supply the most profitable 

type of swine to the rapidly increasing numbers of farmers 

in the corn-growing areas. The Berkshire was the most 

carefully bred hog obtainable, 

Breed though his breeding in England had- 

Building. not been directed with a view to 

adaptation to utilization of corn. 

However he was superior in many ways to the native 

stock and gained a place. Selection among descendants 

of crosses of the Berkshire with stock combining the good 

features of the types previously used gave the foundation 

of the Poland-China. 

The pronounced disposition to fatten that character- 
ized this breed brought it into strong demand for im- 
proving the stock upon farms where little improvement 
had been effected. The native sows being disposed to 
mature slowly but to reach good size and breed freely, 
the opposite extremes were really 
Extremes needed for mating with them in 

Needed. order that the offspring should be 

as nearly right as possible. Most of 
the breeders made their selections to meet the general de- 
mand. Heavy feeding of corn was commonly practiced. 



SWINE BREEDING 



281 




282 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

Animals of the smaller size soon passed through the 
period of most rapid growth and became fat at an earlier 
age than those with greater tendencies to growth. 

Because corn alone is more favorable to fattening than 
to growth its use in herds being bred for early-maturing 
qualities was an important factor in the elimination of 
animals that fattened less rapidly in their growing days. 
Well sustained gains are possible only by the continued 
development of frame that characterizes animals capable 
of coming to large size. The extreme of early fattening 
means rapid gains from accumulation of fat and also 
cessation of gains at a comparatively early age. It has 
been said that the tendency in all 
Results of breeding of improved stock is to go 

Extremes. to extremes. Extremes are usually 

demanded by stock-raisers who see 
the need of improvement in their previously neglected 
animals. Continued adherence to an extreme type in 
the herd eventually results in difficulty. If followed by 
a majority of those working with a breed it results in the 
stock becoming unsuitable to the needs of the raisers of 
commercial stock who first demanded the extreme type. 
This is no more true of swine than of other stock. Prog- 
ress toward the extreme in swine was facilitated by the 
fact that corn-feeding aided the selection of less growthy 
sw^ine. It also served to accentuate the tendency to small 
litters which naturally accompanies the curtailment of 
growth. Because one generation of swine follows an- 
other only twelve months later the results of selection 
appear in a very short time. 

Judges at fairs are usually breeders. They naturally 



SWINE BREEDING 



283 




284 BREEDING FARM x\NIMALS 

take as their standard the type of animal for which 

buyers will pay most liberally. The early type of show 

hog in the cornbelt was the type 

Show that was demanded and needed by 

Type. the buyers of sires of market hogs. 

Developments in farm herds of 

swine also come rapidly and a comparatively few years 

of breeding to boars of the show type and of heavy 

corn-feeding brought the farm sows very close to the 

same type. It was then that complaints were made of 

lightness of bone, which means lack of size and growthi- 

ness. Smallness of litters was also an outcome of the 

same conditions and methods. The show type was spoken 

of as something separate and distinct from the farmers' 

type although it was first established as a result of 

farmers' demands. 

The earliest improved breeds were the first to undergo 
such evolution in type and popularity. The logical remedy 
lay in the use of opposite extremes. 
Opening for These were usually found in newer 
More Breeds. breeds still retaining unimpaired 
size and fecundity along with native 
coarseness and slowness in maturing. All the older breeds 
of swine have passed through much the same stage. The 
changes illustrate the idea that every wrong condition 
works its own remedy though after a great cost to indi- 
viduals. The incoming breeds have not escaped the 
effects of the influences that brought them into demand 
though the workers with more recent introductions have 
seen the necessity of combining refinement and ready 
fattening qualities with a desirable degree of size and 



SWINE BREEDING , 285 

growthiness and have demonstrated the possibiHty of such 
a combination. 

The rising and waning of the height of popularity of 
successive American breeds of swine compels one im- 
portant conclusion. Neither real success nor profit can 
come to the breeder or raiser who proceeds by the mating 
of opposite extremes. Even though the mixing of breeds 
is avoided opposite types within a breed must necessarily 
be the product of different methods 
Mixing and the descendants of wholly dif- 

Types. ferent animals. The union of such 

is subject to the same uncertainties 
that follow blending the blood of animals of different 
breeds, even though the progeny remains eligible to regis- 
tration. Errors having been made and realized, such a 
step may be the beginning of correction but it is a 
retracing rather than an advance. 

Farm production of swine or other market stock is 
most satisfactory and most remunerative when the nec- 
essity for reversing methods and changing types or breeds 
is entirely avoided. If breeding 
Continuity stock is selected to embody the best 

in Farm possible combination of qualities for 

Breeding. the market with the essentials of 

economic production, progress can 
continue without interruption. New sires selected for 
their possession and inheritance of the same qualities 
serve to raise the standard of the females and to reduce 
the proportion of inferior offspring by strengthening the 
blood. What is aimed at in bringing in new sires may 
also be contributed to in selection of the females which 



286 BREEDING FARM ANIMALS 

become increasingly uniform and prepotent as time 
goes on. 

There have not been wanting workers with the older 
breeds who foresaw the ultimate outcome of continued 
breeding in accordance with the extreme demands and 
needs of owners of wdiolly unimproved stock. Such far- 
seeing men have saved the day for 
Conservative their breeds by breeding the medium 
Breeders. types which needed no correction 

and which they foresaw must ulti- 
mately be generally adopted. Occurrences in swine breed- 
ing also show the need of foresight on the part of pro- 
fessional breeders. To be permanently successful they 
must recognize and adhere to the essential points. The 
final result of the fads and extremes of transient popu- 
larity must be foreseen and avoided. The l^reeder has 
greater need than has the raiser of commercial stock to 
forecast demands that come through changing economical 
conditions or as a result of errors or misconceptions of 
the large number. It is with breeders endowed with such 
powers of perception that the permanency of our live 
stock industry rests. They have also frequent occasion 
to show the courage of their convictions by running- 
counter to the ideas of a majority of their fellow's or by 
giving the note of warning of the result of adherence to 
an impractical ideal. 

The few breeders of unusual 
Breeder's courage and judgment, upon wdiom 

Reward. so much rests at times, do not al- 

ways live to see the return of their 
fellows to the conservative standards. . The benefit of 



SWINE BREEDING 287 

their work may sometimes go to those who follow them, 
though real ability as a breeder very seldom fails of 
receiving material compensation. The fascination of 
molding animal form makes the breeder's work an absorb- 
ing pleasure. To have earned the right to feel that he 
has aided in rendering domestic animals more useful to 
mankind is his most prized reward. 



JG 19 1911 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 
hui^ 22 '^ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

II II I III I II jl li|l lll| II I III III! II I IN 



002 818 132 2 



